The Janus Saga: The Prince's story
by Weiila
Summary: Coread for A look on another one either can be read first. Warning, character death... sorta. Chapter 9 Last chapter! With Janatzer back alive, there's only one more thing to take care of. Janus gets to show off just HOW angry he can really be...
1. Darkness hidden within

The Janus saga; The Prince's story

The sun shone brightly over the capital of empire Garadia, sparkling in swords and helmets in the fields outside the town. The whole country was in uproar, preparing for war against the land in the East; Mandria. But inside the great palace a battle was already waged, and unbeknownst to anyone this argument would lead to the fateful end of the war, and maybe even cause the doom of mankind for all times.

"I am not going to fight in your war, your majesty," a very cold voice stated again.

    The words echoed through the throne room. Every single human in the great hall stared at the man who had spoken, each one with more or less disbelief. Some even in outraged fear, horror over age-old traditions being violated.

 "I would consider my words carefully if I were thee, lord Janus," another man's voice said, sharply.

 "Oh, I am."

    The tall, blue-haired man met the emperor's angered eyes without even blinking.

 "I spent over ten years of my life fighting in a pointless war, and I'm not taking orders from you."

 "Pride of thine sort can be very dangerous," the man on the throne coldly said.

    The woman by his side clenched her jaw and pressed her eyes shut tight in silent rage by the words, while Janus' eyes narrowed.

 "So you say?"

    The warlock's voice was colder than ice.

 "And let me warn _you_ then," he said, each word cutting through the thick air of the throne-room, "of all enemies I have had throughout my life, none is alive to warn you about becoming one of my foes. Good day."

    With a violent move of his hand he created a flash of light that swallowed both him and his enormous snake.

    As soon as they were gone the emperor turned to the advisor by his side.

 "And his nephew is a recruit?" the royalty coldly said.

 "Yes, my emperor."

    For a moment the empress simply stared at the two men in hate-filled horror.

 "Husband!" she harshly said, causing almost the whole court to jump with her impudence, "thou _canst_ not do that!"

 "Silence, Lashey!" the emperor snarled, and his hands warningly balled into fists.

    The empress clenched her jaw but lowered her head, paling with anger and despair.

 'Lord Janus...' 

 "Ignorant fool!"

    Janus stormed into existence in the middle of the kitchen, nearly causing his brother in law to drop his bowl of tea. Cered very tiredly pressed one hand against his forehead, the faint hope that age had granted his wife's brother respect for the emperor dying. Not that he had been stupid enough to let it become great for a start either.

 "Your new emperor is even more foolhardy than your last, Cered," the warlock snarled, furiously sitting down by the table.

 "I take it his inquiry was not anything you could apply to?" the red-haired man tiredly said.

 "Inquiry?" Janus spat, "he _demanded_ that I'd take out the enemy for him!"

 "Have some tea and calm down, Janus," Schala mildly said, passing him the teapot. 

    But Janus just waved it aside with an irritated movement.

 "I should have taken Janatzer back with me too," he grunted, "it's sheer stupidity."

 "We could do something to prevent this though," Schala said with a frown, "this war isn't…"

 "It's no use," Janus grimly cut her off, "the whole town is in a bright festive mood about the glorious battles ahead. They want to fight; there's nothing we can do."

 "Still…"

    She fell silent and stared at her tea.

 "Well… at least Janatzer is just a recruit in training, so he's not in danger…" she muttered, a bit bitterly though as she knew other families would not be as lucky.

    With a grunt Janus pressed a hand against his forehead.

 "I'm too old for this kind of idiocy…" he growled.

    Schala glanced at Molor, just in time to see a streak of intense pain flashing in the cold eyes. The woman held back a sigh, her heart aching for the snake as she knew what he felt. Molor had told her as she had asked once, concerned about the small signs of agony he hid for Janus.

    The pain that the snake felt had its full origin in his kindred spirit. Molor was after all in reality a dragon, and he would live for at least two centuries after Janus' death. And he dreaded that knowledge, hated and feared the future when he would be alone. But he did not want to tell Janus that, only easing his heart on Schala's worried query once.

    The princess looked up at her brother.

    Sure he was older. They all were, but not complaining. They were still healthy, really only closing in on forty. She had begun to find gray strands in her hair, just beside her ears, and Janus had lately started getting the same marks. But she thought that he was exaggerating with calling himself old. He hadn't had any need to fight in the seventeen years passing since Charash had bothered them, but was still in great shape. And obviously, his temper could still explode when hitting the right nerve.

 "How is Lashey?" Schala mildly asked, changing the subject.

 "She had a…"

    Janus paused and shook his head.

 "She looked fine," he grunted, irritated.

    Schala glanced at Molor again, but saw nothing in his pitch-black pools encircled by cold green this time.

 "Her son must be seven or eight I believe," Schala continued, as a matter of factly.

 "Six," her husband corrected, "her marriage was a late one, not until her highly honored father was on his last breath did she accept a suitor."

 "Persistent little butterfly, isn't she?" Janus growled.

    Schala just sighed lightly, Cered grunted something.

    A door slammed shut.

 "Is that you Ceredan?" Schala called, leaning backwards to see the door.

 "Yes mother!"

    A boy in his younger teens entered the kitchen from the small entrance room, smiling a bit. He had a very fine, thin face and held a light training staff in his hand; looking to grow more wiry than muscular. Rather short cut, blue hair covered his head.

    Though Schala and Cered's second son was named after his father he had most of his looks from his mother's side. 

 "Thou art back, uncle?" he said with a small grin, leaning the staff against a wall, "what did the emperor say?"

 "Nothing important," Janus said with a roll of his eyes, "he's overestimated."

 "Truly?"

 "Truly."

    The shadow of a smile even touched Janus' lips as he spoke now. Schala couldn't help but smile too. It never ceased to amaze her how all of her children affected her brother. Though Schaliya still was the one he loved most of the three, Janatzer and Ceredan were very close to his once darkened heart.

 "... And so the heroes came to realize that the one they called their enemy must have had far other connections to the beast Lavos than they ever could have guessed. The warlock of the Middle ages hadn't created the monster..."

  Ceredan listens to my story with a concentration that almost makes me smile. I wonder if he has figured out the truth about it yet... 

  I need to clear my head of that idiotic emperor. Even though several days have passed since I was called by him I'm still irritated. Even Lashey's better, at least she never tried to command me. One point to the headache. 

  Hmm.  

  It keeps bothering me. She _did_ have a bruise, perhaps the makeup could hide it to others but both I and Molor both noticed. But she's not the kind of woman who'd take such a treatment, is she? 

  Why do I bother about her? Makes me irritated just remembering how she used to look at me all those years ago.

 "With Crono in the lead the three hurried into the crater to find their foe, but all that was there was another time Gate."

 "Lavos created it, didn't he?" Ceredan grimly says. 

  I nod. 

 "Yes. With their usual bravery, or stupidity, the warriors ent... gh!"

 '_Mother... father_...!!' 

  There's a crash from the kitchen, but before that a heart piercing screech from Schala. Molor almost jumps from the floor as I bolt up, the terror from the sounds in my head and ears almost tearing me apart. 

 "Janatzer!!" Schala screeches, she cries and screams her son's name, "_JANATZER_!!" 

 "No! No, no... no!" 

  Cered stumbles into the kitchen by the time I reach it. His wide, wild eyes shoot between me and his wife.

 "Tell me 'tis not so!" he cries, "not Janatzer?! Not Janatzer..." 

  But he knows, and I know. Schala knows. 

  Our Janatzer... 

 "_NO_!!"

  I hardly hear my own chanting, pulling at the fragile telepathic call still shivering in my mind. In a blast of light the kitchen disappears, and I find myself, Schala and Cered in a battle field. Warriors stumble around us, desperate war cries and screams of the injured living a life of its own in a horrifying twister of death. Our appearance creates confusion, and some forgotten part of my mind is still sane enough to make me set up a barrier against the rest of the world. 

  Schala and Cered are already on their knees, screaming and crying over the dead body on the ground.   

  He's not more than a boy, barely seventeen. His hair is a red tumbleweed, now dirtied by the bloody mud that stains his face. Blood has sprouted into his face, his eyes shining wide and white where the blood hasn't run into them. 

  An arrow is stuck in his stomach, the killing wound. 

  Janatzer, my nephew... Schala and Cered's oldest son... he is dead. 

 "He wasn't supposed to fight in the war, he's only a recruit!!" Schala screams, tears flooding down her cheeks. 

  Crying screaming how many children like Schaliya did I bring death how many mother's have cried because of me why did Janatzer die why was he sent to the battleground... 

  Flaring thoughts cut my mind and soul into pieces, I can only stare at the corpse. 

  Because I wouldn't serve the emperor. He's dead because I defied that blasted... _I_ had him _killed_...

  It's all your fault, Magus within me smirks, and will you now dare to mourn, as the emperor's sin is a copy of your own? 

  No... 

  I fall to my knees. 

  No... 

  You're so weak. 

  No... 

  All your fault. 

  No... 

  All your doing, you caused this for thousands of others! 

  No... _NO_!!

  My hands hit the melting ground, my burning tears blurring into the blood in the mud. 

  You're a worthless wreck! You caused his death, _you_ killed Janatzer!

 "_NO_!!"

  Scream all you want now that you face yourself, he sneers, what you try to deny, you worthless worm, is a crime beyond any compare! 

  Shut up shut up shut up shut... 

  Why is he tormenting me like this...? He always wanted me to be what he now claims as false... something's wrong, he's trying to break me... 

  But the faint realization is like ashes in the wind as I stare at the corpse, trembling by wave upon wave of horror of what has happened. 

  I caused my nephew's death, I killed Janatzer... because I wouldn't serve the emperor. I... _I_...

 "_Raaahhh_!!"

  The roar leaving my lips pierce the sound of battle as I dash through my feet, tears still streaming down my cheeks, burning my skin like acid. My arms stretch out in a direction each and I leave the ground. _NO MORE_!!

 "Dark powers of the..."

  That won't work!

  Magus' sneer hits me like Charash's paw, he seems to be outside of my head, speaking to my mind from someplace else... there's an empty space left after him, has he left my soul...? How is that possible, he's just a... 

  But that's yet another query going lost, even though some faraway part of my mind screams in terror it's not enough for me to stop listening. 

  There's thousands of them, he coldly points out with another smirk, and the underworld doesn't grant power to save lives. 

 'What can I do?!' I scream in my thoughts. 

  You really wish to pay for what **you have done?**

  He sounds amused. 

  The faraway part of my mind turns over itself, screaming and shouting. But it feels so far away, everything seems so far... 

 'What can I do?!'

  **You want to stop this, don't you? It isn't free... **

  It's as if the darkness I have named Magus is a spirit of it's own... 

  My mind is almost crying, but I can't listen to the alarming bells. They feel... unimportant. 

  Good powers what have I done what have I done what have I done... 

  Killed Janatzer... brought this agony to countless humans... 

  **Ah...**

  Magus smirks. 

  **You can't turn back, I see that. **

  That... darkness...

  That…

  Wait… it can't...?!

  My mind catches my soul and finally I realize exactly what "Magus within me" truly is. 

 'By the powers... no! It's impossible!'

  **Ha!**

 'Back off, rather will I die!' I screech in even greater horror than I thought possible.

  It just can't be... it can't be!  

  **Ah, how you fear to face your responsibility...**

  It is. 

 '_You_ speak of _responsibility_?! I make no alliances with you, demon!' 

  **You are prepared to save all these young men, to pay back what you have caused, aren't you? No, you have to. You can't back off now.**

  He smirks. 

 'What do you care about human lives?' I growl. 

  **Nothing at all. But _you_ do, don't you?**

  Smirk. 

  **And as you might understand, _you_ are a point of... interest to me.**

 'What are you doing inside of my head?!' I shout, refusing to face what he's saying.

  **Scheming, what else? Time is running out, Janus. What will you do?**

  He sneers again. 

  The tears join with sweat, dripping from my forehead. I can't, I can't... I refuse, I won't...

  **These humans will belong to me sooner or later anyhow. Will you buy them time or not? To be with their pretty little families for a few more years?**    

 'I...'

  As if my head was caught between his gigantic palms it turns to let me see a warrior of Garadia fall to the ground, twitching in agony with an arrow in his stomach. My head is turned at Janatzer. Schala and her husband are crying like mad, oblivious to what I am doing. I can't recognize her as my sister and not Cered as my brother in law in their grief. The grief I share... 

  And it will be shared by countless others before this day has passed, if I don't stop this war... I can't use Shadow for it... I lack the power... what have I done?!

 'I...'

  I can't even think my retreat, my agreement of slavery. But he knows, the bastard knows... 

  **Ah, Janus...**

  His mind drifts closer, and now I can hear his voice. I have never heard it before, I didn't believe he could speak but he does now. 

 **'You have no idea how I have longed for this moment, Janus of Zeal,'** he smirks, **'even if you kill me in the world's future I will have my revenge in yours!'**

  I cringe in agony, a grimace of pure torture tearing up my face. 

 **'Speak the words, Janus. _Speak the words_, _now_.'**

  Sweat and tears... forgive me, Schala... but what is my life worth after all I have caused...  

 'That it should be _you_ of all the dark forces to harvest my punishment, how twisted fate is...' I spit at him. 

 **'Yes, isn't it?'** he smirks, **'now chant!'**

  It feels like my mind is about to crack open...  

 "N-nuega, zi-ziena..." 

  More tears. My lips protest, but I keep chanting through my grief. Every word in old Zealan cutting through my head, drawing me closer to my doom. 

  Forgive me Schala, Cered, Janatzer, Schaliya, Ceredan, Molor, Glenn, Crono, Marle, Lucca, Ayla, Robo, mother, Lizard... 

  Is this even for better or worse, what will I do when I'm gone? I... I... 

 "Zieb-ber... zom..."

  Forgive me... 

  Please forgive me... 

 "Now the... chk..."

  I struggle for a moment, desperately refusing. _No_!

 'Speak out the words, Janus! Chant! You already agreed in this trading of lives!'

  And I can't hold back.

 "... Now the... chosen... time has c-come... exch-change... exchange..." 

  No! Lizard, mother, Schala... anyone, _don't let me do this_!

  But there's only his voice, and it's too late for me now. 

 **'_Chant_!'**

 "Exchange... this..." 

  My fingers disappear into my swirling hair as my whole being twitches in agony. Exchange... 

 **_'SUMMON ME!'_**

  Exchange... good powers... 

 "... Th-this..."

  My head is thrown backwards, the tears being spread across the closed room I created for Janatzer. 

  Exchange this... this... 

 "Name your prize!" I cry out with a voice which isn't mine, "I can't...!"

  His laughter pierce my soul as I hear Schala's distant scream of terror. 

 **'You belong to me, Janus of Zeal! For thousands of strangers!'**

  _You disgusting parasite_!!

 'Speak it out, you'll tell the world by own words!' he sneers down at me... or is that up... 

 "_JANUS_!" Schala screams. 

  Forgive me, I kill your son and brother on the same day... I was never worthy of being your brother, you, wonderful angel... 

 "Exch-change this..." 

  Soul? Body? Both? What amount of my power does he want to start with? 

  Power?

  A desperate flinch, one last resort... he used my techniques against us when we fought him, but I forced myself to forget that in anger... maybe...

  You haven't won yet!

 "Exchange these magic powers for thousands of lives!" I screech. 

 **'_What_?!'**

  He roars in anger but is bound by the sacrifice I made, which he accepted too early. 

  I almost smile. 

  You win today, Lavos, but not in the way you thought you would...

  Dark power fills my body, but I am merely a catalyst. 

  It doesn't hurt, but it's not pleasant either. I can't know what happens, only hear that the darkness swallows all sounds of battle. But I get a hold the evil, feeling its wish to wreak havoc. It twitches in my grip, scornful at my attempt to stop it. 

  Oh no you don't. Save the lives, that was our agreement.

  Everything is silent, and I can't see through the dark. 

  Then I feel Schala's shaking hand against my cheek. 

 "Janus..." she sobs, stuttering. 

 "Get that blasted emperor and the king for a truce, I can't hold him back forever," I grunt, surprised at how calm my voice sounds. 

  Calm as death itself. 

 "Go, now."

  She hesitates for a moment, then she starts to chant and her heavenly presence disappears. 

 **'I give, that was rather clever,'**Lavos coldly says.  

  I grit my teeth. That he even has feelings is shocking in itself, but not as much as other facts. 

 'How did you do this?' I snarl. 

 **'Grab your darkened mind before my death?'**

  He actually chuckles cruelly, making me grimace again. 

 **'Nothing would be simpler.'**

  I guess not... 

 'But this won't help you tear up history again,' I grunt, forcing myself to sneer.   

  This time he's _not_ laughing. 

 'And even if you had sized control,' I go on, using my upper hand as long as it lasts, 'I don't think I would have been any better against Glenn and the others than already proven.' 

 **'Don't be too full of yourself.'**

  His suppressed rage turns into a sneer. 

 **'Have you even considered what will happen to you when I take my prize?'**

 'It's better than what you had in mind!' I growl, revolting. 

 **'Oh really? It will be amusing to see you handle being back at about the state where Flea began his work on you.'**

  I cringe, and he sneers. 

 'And remember, I said nothing about leaving your mind,' he points out, soft as silk. 

  My throat tighten and I can't hold back a raging groan, unable to move though.

 "Brother!" 

  Cered's call is distant, but he's there... now how did lips and tongue work again? 

 "What..." 

 "Art thee well?" 

  He doesn't know how to express his worry, so the unneeded question obviously has to do. 

  Maybe...

 "Get Molor..." I whisper with a broken voice, the calm I showed Schala now torn, "Molor... he might..."

 "I shall try." 

 **'You wouldn't dare!'** Lavos growls. 

 'Why not?' I sneer.

  I was right... "Magus within" always seemed to have something against my kindred spirit. 

 'I'll break the contact!' 

  Beaten. 

 "Wait, don't..." 

 "What is happening, brother?" 

 "Lavos," I mutter, cringing. 

 "What?!" 

 "I'll explain... it'll be alright." 

  But that is a lie...

 **'You are weak, Janus of Zeal.'**

  Normally I'd roar at him to shut up, but trust me on this; it's not worth it to be rude to an alien parasite who's literally raping your mind.

 'I don't care,' is all I can manage.

 **'Then handle this...'**

  I cringe again as Cered's presence is cut off by even more darkness. I can't see, I can't hear, I can't move. I can only breathe and think, hardly even that. I can't even... feel... Molor... I...

  There's only Lavos... and his... dark... ness... crush... ing... down...

  I think I'm... fall... 

 'Lord Janus?' a woman's voice suddenly calls out in my mind.

 'What?'

 **'What the...?'**

  As if things weren't worse enough...

 'Lashey...?' I think, tiredly muttering.

 'The brooch is glowing. What hast happened to thee?' she grimly asks. 

  That blasted brooch... she's still keeping it?

  Lavos can't cut off her link? His irritation causes the darkness to glow.

  How ironic... he can't do anything about the brooch since I created it from a piece of myself, my hair... that _Lashey_ actually should be the one to stop that parasite from winning in the old fashioned way, it's almost laughable.

  Had things been different I would at least have scowled in frustration upon hearing her voice again. But now...

 'Keep talking,' I mutter.

 'What?'

 'Keep talking. There's an evil spirit trying to crush my mind, I have to stay sane.'

  She doesn't even hesitate in shock of what I just said... hate to admit it but she is a special woman...

 'What hast happened? I saw a great darkness to the east just a few moments ago, and I carried a feeling thou hath something to do with it.'

 'It has to do with said spirit, yes.'

 **'Shut up, you worthless ants!'** Lavos growls.

 'Shut up thyself, whoever thou art!' Lashey snaps back.

 **'You don't even know what you're dealing with!'** he sneers.

  She irritates him, but she cannot fight him back. So he's got no reason to threaten to break the contact with his past body; the empress can hold him back from turning me insane for the moment but not threaten him.

  Hah. I'm at the mercy of Lavos and Lashey... why couldn't Charash just have roasted me... 

 'No, I dost not,' Lashey shots back at the alien in a poisonous voice, 'but I shalt not retreat.'

 **'How brave one is... and why? Because of this warlock who despises you? Because you claim to feel this "love" that humans find so incredibly important?'** Lavos asks, almost amused. 

  Oh, _please_... not again...

 'I shalt not negotiate with a demon, neither discuss with thee,' Lashey coldly says.

  Lavos laughs, shaking my poor mind.

 **'You shall not negotiate with me?'** he sneers, **'your beloved warlock just did. To stop this war your male started he agreed on giving up his magic to me.'**

 'Lies!' Lashey shouts.

 'No, it's true,' I mutter.

  She's silent, finally in shock.

 'But what he really wanted was complete control of me, to do with as he desired,' I add with the tiny piece of triumph I can still summon, 'which I wouldn't grant him.'

 'But why?' she finally asks.

 'To stop the blasted war.'

  She's silent for a moment.

 'Lord Janus, I swear that if Liech still was by me my husband would be dead as soon as he touches the palace with his filthy feet again!' she finally snarls.

 'Liech is dead?' I mutter, a bit taken aback before I remember that the empress' white snake wasn't a transformed dragon like Molor and had normal reptile's lifespan.

 'Yes.'

  She tries to keep her voice emotionless. 

 **'Puny, but tasty,'** the alien smirks.

  That's just _it_!

 'Lavos, shravela tchtran, croch _schrert tar lez_!' 

  Modern language is fine most of the time, but forgotten speech has a tendency to be more... colorful. What I said can't and shouldn't be translated. 

 **'My, my, my... such bad language for an insect prince.'**

  He smirks.

 **'You seem confused,'** he tells Lashey, with rising amusement.

 'I canst not deny it,' she reluctantly admits.

 **'Ah well. Your so called love here is really a prince from an ancient kingdom of magic, where I was worshipped as a god. Which I am.'**

 'Not...' I mutter, despite the fact that I have a psychic snare around my throat. 

 **'Yes I am, Janus.'**

  Him speaking my name is worse than having to bow to Ozzie in my dreams... I can't help but grimace, to his eternally growing delight.

 'Leave him alone, thou foul pest!' Lashey snarls.

 **'You're one to talk,'** Lavos smirks, **'do you even understand that your lord Janus to the very core fears me?'**

 'Pha!'

 'I would be an idiot not to,' I grunt, 'but that would also be if I had to face you alone, which I'm not.'

 **'Just because that brooch's faltering powers still lasts,'** Lavos snorts.

  He's silent for a split second before smirking again.

 **'Humans are so hard necked, don't you agree on that?'**

  The darkness opens and through a mist I see Schala shouting at two men by a table. She must have teleported the king and emperor to one destination.

 "I don't care what you demand of each other, just sign the blasted truce!" she rages, "have you any idea what that thing out there is!?"

  Oh no...

 'You _didn't_...?!' I hoarsely growl. 

 **'Why not?'**

  He chuckles cruelly.

 **'Oh, but don't worry. I haven't caused anything worse than another earthquake, and nobody was badly hurt. Only since you asked so nicely, my dear prince.'**

 "My lady," the emperor coldly says, "thou hast no right to..."

 "Powers of the world, lend me the power of Light!"

  The table splits in two, but the paper that was lying on it keeps floating.

 "Sign... it... now!" Schala growls. 

  Very slowly the emperor and the other man raises a pen each.

  And the image fades away.

 **'I have sent every soldier back to their respective side of the battlefield,'** Lavos says, soft as silk, **'wasn't that kind of me?'**

  I violently cringe.

 **'I guess you know what happens now, then,'** he adds.

 'Janus?!'

  Lashey's voice falls away, it feels like I'm thrown through thin air... the fact that I hit something and then crash on the ground proves that theory.

 "Agh..." 

 **'Need support?'**

 "Dammit..."

  Reluctantly I rise up on one arm, shaking my head and holding the other hand against my face to regain orientation. I know it, but I just don't want to realize that the ground I'm resting -if that's the word- on is flowing, pulsating with awful light and eerie colors.

 **'Now this will be delightful to see again... do you want to know what happened when this future of me was in this past, at this very moment?'**

 "No..." I growl, more crawling backwards than anything else, refusing to look.

 **'Doesn't matter, you'll see. Soon…'**

  I pathetically growl as an almost metallic hand consisting of two claws grab my weakened arm and drags me back. One of his insectoid helpers... 

 "Ouff!"

   I'm thrown on the flowing ground, then ripped up by my shoulders to find the drooling, disgusting eye/mouth of Lavos' shell just a feet from my face.

 **'Be a good boy and say "ah".'**

  But I don't think that my scream can be associated with any particular letter at all.  


	2. Don't leave him alone!

Chapter 2

I am the decrowned king of the dragons, not of this world. My soul is clocked with the one of the most powerful humans throughout their history, I am Molor. 

  And right now I couldn't be closer to being torn apart.

  Something is wrong... terribly wrong.

 "Molor, what's happening!?" 

  Grudgingly I wrap my tail around Ceredan's arm and push him away. 

  Please, I must concentrate...

 "Molor!" he calls, pleading.

  I like the boy... he's much like his older sister. Really, he's the one who should be named after his uncle, Janatzer looks much more like Cered with his red hair. Ceredan reminds of my kindred spirit…

  He's afraid... the last thing that happened was that his parents and uncle disappeared, more or less hysterical. And he doesn't know what has happened, more than that there's something about his brother. I don't know either for sure, but I have a bad idea about what it is. I have to go... now!

  But the boy is afraid.

  I open my throat in the necessary way, ignoring the singeing feeling.

 "Shh, Ceredan."

 "What's happening, Molor?!" he shouts, desperate.

 "I don't know, it's just... _argh_!"

 "Molor!"

   The next thing I know is that my head is resting on his small hands and lap, but through the dark mist I can hardly see the boy's face.

 "Janus... is..." I croak, forcing my long body into a proper position, "dang... er..."

 "Uncle?!"

 "Ceredan..."

 "Wait!"

  He runs after me as I clumsily slither out, pushing the door open with my head. I'm still dizzy, but that just increases the power of desperation.

  I guess the people of the town stare at us as I sway further away from the house with the young boy anxiously rushing after me.

 "I have to go and..."

  FOCUS!

 "... I'll save them all, I promise, Ceredan."

  My already hoarse voice turns into a growl. That rising... power? I know it... from Janus' memory?

 "What are you going to do?" he whispers.

 "Back off, I need some space. And don't be afraid."

  Doing this in the middle of town might not be wise, but I have no choice and no time. I don't have my human friends' ability to warp from one place to another.

 "Back off! Hurry!" I croak.

  Ceredan stumbles backwards.

  This will shorten my lifespan with about fifty years, again. But, that's just half a century less I'll have to live as a half being. 

 "_AARGHHH_!!"

  Ecstasy... transforming, taking my body back. It leaves me weakened afterwards, but I have to. I just wish I didn't miss it so much! 

  I can hear screams, humans screaming in terror from far away. But their horror falls so puny in my mind as my body grows, wings and legs erupting from me. 

  This... pleasure that costs me life force. I can do it anytime, which is painful enough since I cannot keep my true form for very long. But, even though I fear a future where Janus won't be there, I can't even use it to shorten my agony in any way. I must only use this for the darkest emergency, a time which is now. Suicide... is not tolerated by dragons.

  Ecsta... sy... power and... I'm... alive.

  And I can feel him better again. He's... what the Cursed!? 

  _JANUS_!!

  With a roar I take the sky, spreading my crimson wings.

  Holy flame, let me be wrong, _let me be wrong_!

I'm... feels like... argh... let me... leave... I... so... stop... stop...

   ... stop... 

   ... it...

   ...

   ..

   .

   ... stop...

   ... p... stop... 

 **'Now what was that?'**

   ... pl...

 **'I must have something in my sound sensors, I can't hear you.'**

   ... ple...

   ... augh...

 **'One more try.'**

   ... stop... please... stop...

 **'You ashame yourself, prince. On the other hand...'**

   ... ah... h...

 **'... There's not much left of you.'**

   ..

 **'Hmph, better hold back or you won't do at all...'**

   .

   ..?

   ... n...

   ... o...

   ...

 **'That's enough my dear. Let him go.'**

   ... ouff...

 **'You knew you wouldn't get away. Guess I better fill you up with a little energy so I'll be able to move you.'**

   ... n...

   ... augh... no... you...

   ... won't...

 **'Watch me, prince, watch me.'**

   ... no.

 **'What? Wecroch, him again... how irritating.'**

   ... ouff...

 '_Janus_! Friend, hold on!'

   ... Mo... lor...

   ... light... I can... I can breathe again?

 'Better?' Molor's powerful mind whispers, still pouring his own strength into my battered being. 

 'Thank you...' 

   I become alive once more but... I'll never be strong again. Damn him...

 **'It always amazed me how a creature such as you could decline enough to make allies among humans,'** Lavos growls.

 'So it _was_ you...'

   Molor's voice is thick and rumbling, with rage and due to his transformation.

 **'I guess you were too weak to choose when you came here.'**

   Lavos smirks and continues:

 **'After all... humans are nothing except small lumps of interesting cells that tend to try to defy their fate all the time.'**

 'And their fate, that would be have their bodies harnessed by you after their death to help you get stronger?' Molor icily replies, 'but let me tell you something Lavos, this little piece of meat is _mine_!'

   St-stop shak-king me...

 'Just when, _when_ did I become groceries?' I exhaustedly grunt.

 'And furthermore,' Molor snarls, 'I can aim very well even from this height!'

 **'I knew I should have warned myself...'** Lavos snarls as a roaring of massive flames almost deafen me.

   There's a sharp, numbing screech of pain and another violent rumbling as the ground close around the gigantic shell.

 'Better,' Molor snarls.

 **'Wouldn't you wish?'** Lavos sneers.

 'What the icetalon!?'

   The dragon roars aloud in rage, and though I'm limblessly hanging from his tail and thereby isn't too close to his mouth my ears ache even more.

   Damn it all...

 'Where are you, you accursed parasite?!'

 **'Parasite, ah yes. Can't deny that, it's my profession.'**

   I can feel Molor turn his enormous head at his tail and me in horror. Friend...

 'That's right,' Lavos says, soft as silk, 'you're holding me.'

 "_NO_!!"

 'There's still time,' I groan, 'I'm not gone yet.'

 **'Oh, but I won't even let you be gone,'** Lavos merrily says, **'ever. There's no fun in letting the soul go...**'

   Agh...

 "_Janus_!"

  Schala rushes forward and violently hug me as Molor lower his tail enough for me to come into reach.

 "Brother!"

  Cered...

 "Be he well, Molor?" Schala's husband concernedly asks.

 "It... could be better," my kindred spirit sadly replies.

 "Schala..." I groan.

 "I'm here, he won't get to toy with you, I swear!" she growls.

 "Schala... I must die... quick..."

   All three of them freeze and stare at me as I weakly shake my head.

 "Listen to me," I groan, "you have to..."

 "No!"

   Their combined screeches almost turns me deaf, again.

 "Listen to me!" I snarl, "I'm _not_ Lavos' new toy! I'm his new body!"

 "I don't want Ceredan to see me like this... augh..."

  The world spin around and everything turns dark. It's like being blind... but I'm not unconscious, I'm still aware... I don't know what he's trying to do now. Probably just attempting to disrupt me further.

 "Hang on, Janus!" Schala grimly snarls as she mutters the teleportation spell.

  Molor has claimed his snake form again and is helping Cered support me as we and Ceredan's body are dematerialized and magically sent away from the foul battlefield. I think we end up in my room in the house...

 "How can we get him out of thy head, Janus?" Cered snarls as I more or less fall down on what's probably my bed.

 "Molor might..." I grunt.

  I hear him sigh.

 "I know what it was all about when it came to Charash," he bitterly says, "but now you're asking me to wrestle Lavos?"

  Agh... 

  It's like my soul has been torn out of my body. In horror I stare down at myself, Molor, Cered, Schala and Ceredan's corpse as _my_ eyes flare up with a dirty red light. The three that can move back in pure shock as _my_ lips move into a horrid sneer.

 "You may try, dragon..."

  The hoarse voice coming from _my_ mouth isn't mine.

  Oh no you don't! Not yet!

  I plunge back into my body, forcefully pushing Lavos backwards. I hardly manage...

  But I look up at my family again, through a thick mist.

 "He's getting a foothold..." my broken voice mutter.

 "Dammit!" 

  They all watch me with despair, but I'm nearly unable to feel any emotions by now... tired...

 "How can we strengthen our odds?" Schala snarls, thinking aloud.

 "Making my body uncomfortable?" I slur, a cruel thought forming in my head.

** 'You wouldn't dare!'** Lavos snarls, making a mistake.

  He's got nothing that can stop me this time.

 "I always wondered how poisonous you are, Molor..." I whisper, now hardly audible.

 "By no means!" my kindred spirit screeches, and my sister and brother in law stare down at me.

  I can hardly see them by now, the mist is growing thicker for every second. He's reaching out to snare me properly...

 "Do it... and Schala, get Glenn and the others here... in... case... agh..."

  I think I'm falling. But I'm not sure. And I'm beyond any fear, I have no emotions anymore.

  Distantly, I feel a great weight wrap around my body, so that it can't move at all. Molor...

 "Go now," I can hear him whisper, "I don't want you to watch this."

 "... Alright."

  And leaving footsteps, a door closing.

  With a silent screech Molor's long body grow tense as he tries to assemble enough strength to take the next step.

  If I had more control I'd scream in agony, but I can't.

  Molor's long, sharp teeth bury in my flesh, tearing it to pieces. And he screams, silently.

  Agh...

  I can't say that I lift my heavy head to look around, for I have no body. 

  Still, I'm hanging in a dark nothingness.

 "**Welcome to your eternity.** "

  I grunt something inaudible at Lavos.

  It's his core that emerges from the darkness and steps up just in front of me. If I could summon enough strength I'd glare coldly at him.

 "**I hope you like it here,** " he icily says, "**because when I've killed your pet this is where you'll stay.** "

 "We haven't even begun yet," Molor's sharp voice says as he crawls into sight.

  Lavos turn to him and sneer as his two life support blobs materialize in his hands.

 "**Indeed...** "

Schala furiously paced back and forth in the corridor while her husband just helplessly could watch her.

 "I can't go away when I know they're in there and fighting over Janus!" she finally growled, shivering with hopeless rage clenching her fists.

 "But thou must bring Glenn here, sunlight," Cered bitterly said in a slightly hoarse voice, "should Molor fail to defeat our foe then Janus will truly be condemned should he not be saved by the Masamune."

 "Dearest, I..."

 "And Schaliya must now what has happened," the husband grimly added.

   Schala stopped and covered her eyes with her hand, shaking her head.

 "Mother, father!" 

   They both spun around as they heard the call and found their youngest son running towards them, his face a mask of horror and worry. Schala caught him in a tight hug, for his sake trying to keep her tears down. Silently Cered wrapped his arms around both his wife and son. 

 "I'll go, I'll get them..." 

   Schala pulled out of the embrace and backed away from Cered's powerless try to calmingly caress her cheek. 

   A moment later she stumbled through time, briefly entering the year of 604 AD. She stood frozen in Guardia forest, through the naked branches of the snow less October looking up towards the roof of the castle which she knew carried her beloved daughter.

   Schaliya who loved her uncle...

   Schala turned around and reentered the flashing darkness, furiously chanting for a new destination.

 'Not yet! I can't, good powers!' 

   She rushed towards another future, this one four hundred years after the one she had visited first.

 'Janus... my dearest Schaliya...'

   She almost fell over as she once again entered Guardia forest, tears stinging her eyes. This forest was full of fresh new leaves and the sun sparkled through the greenery. The beauty of the early summer's day seemed mocking to Schala.

 'Cered, I wish you could support me now! Mother, please help us!'

   Clenching her teeth she regained her balance, fighting to keep the despair from taking over her mind. Stay focused...

   The Gate closed behind her and she hurried through the forest, not trusting her senses enough for the moment to try a teleportation spell.

   She reached the last trees and began hurrying towards the nearby town.

   Get Crono...

   Suddenly a magical flash lit up the forest to her left and she spun in that direction, just in time to see burning trees explode from the green ocean. Schala's heart almost stopped.

   Two stumbling bodies tumbled out between the brown trunks, the smaller one trying to support the bigger. After them came a third one, blindly firing a small laser gun at the bushes behind her.

 "Come on Crono!" Marle screeched, hardly able to carry his weight as he was almost unconscious, "don't leave us! Na matala sela!!"

 Leave me and run...

 "_No_!"

 "What's happening?!" Schala shouted, finally finding her voice again.

   Crono, Marle and Lucca stopped dead, staring at the princess. But another explosion behind them caused them to rush forward again, or at least flee as good as they could.

 "Come back here you pathetic cretins!" a deep, screeching voice roared in scorn, knowing the prey wouldn't get much further.

   Through the forest the Lord of Darkness came. 

   Schala stared, as pieces of burning wood and crumbling green leaves fell around her.

   He was rushing forward through the air with scythe in both hands, his cloak reminding of a flood of human blood in turmoil. A cruel sneer twisted his pale face, and his eyes shone red as the flames of Hell.

   The curved blade of the weapon was stained with blood.

   At the sight of the paralyzed woman he stopped and landed, sneering even wider. The escapees stopped behind Schala, trying to catch their breath and get a hold of the situation.

 "Ah," the voice said, "it's the princess of Zeal."

 "No..." Schala croaked.

 "Let's see... is the proper word in a situation such as this 'behold'?"

 "No..."

 "Fifteen millenias I waited..."

 "No!"

 "... and finally, the warlock is mine!"

 "_NO_!!"

    Lavos cruelly chuckled as Schala's scream of anguish rose towards the blue sky.

 "Perhaps you shouldn't have left your dear little brother back there?" he smirked, "now, now… don't give me that look, it _hurts_!"

 "You condemned demon!" Schala screamed.

 "That's a fine quality of your family, princess," Lavos taunted, "you really know how to scream."

 "You… you…!"

    With a screech Schala sent her hand through the air, painting flames with her pointing finger. As she grabbed the fire and spun into an attacking stance at the same time, the flaring sparks turned into her staff.

 "Stone age…" the parasite smirked.

 "Schala, he's got Janus' magical defense!" Lucca harshly screeched, "we need Glenn and the Masamune!"

    Lavos threw his stolen head backwards and laughed, sending frozen needles through the four humans' souls.

 "Ah yes, of course," the alien finally said, mockingly hiding his wide smirk behind a hand, "the Masamune. Where is your little frog with his sword now?"

 "G-Glenn?!" Marle stuttered in a high-pitched voice.

    His smirk only growing wider Lavos slowly brushed his pointing finger over the scythe's blade, pale skin being colored darkly red.

 "I have the body, and the weakness. I'm not a fool, you know," he sneered.

 "Schaliya…?!" Schala croaked.

 "Oh, she was screaming too last I saw her."

    He chuckled.

 "I couldn't kill her yet, dear. To be able to kill you all I'll have to do it from the future and backwards not to destroy the seeds of you pathetic worms."

    Lucca stumbled backwards and fell to her knees when the glowing eyes turned to her and the voice spoke again.

 "The robot is gone. Your turn."

 "I swear Lavos!" Schala snarled in a thick voice, "you will pay!"

 "You want to fight me too?" Lavos purred, "like your daughter, son in law and the foolish black worm?"

 "Molor…"

    Not until then it fully hit Schala that Lavos' presence not only meant the end of her brother. She couldn't hinder herself from taking a step backwards, doubt's poison infecting her very being.

 "Indeed. What are _you_, compared to that dragon?" the parasite agreed, easily reading her thoughts by the reaction.

    Clenching her teeth Schala resolutely stepped forward again. If she didn't even try, then everything she held precious was certainly doomed. But she feared it already was.

 "I won't run away from you, beast!" she snarled, gripping her staff tighter to draw courage from the familiar grip.

 "Your last child is in the past, he will close history," Lavos thoughtfully nodded and smirked, "I can kill you now, it's alright."

    Schala glanced around and found Lucca, Marle and Crono grimly nodding, their faces pale though. The young man was staggering, but his fiancée's magic had healed most of the wound on his hip.

    Looking back the blue-haired princess paled even more however.

    Lavos had put two fingers on his right hand against his forehead, not unlike how Janus' had done when focusing. And a ray of horrible light came from the meeting of fingers and head, showering over the ground. 

    It was taking a form.

    Schala's mouth just fell open, she couldn't even produce a whimper.

 "Janus…?" Lucca stuttered in a weak voice.

    The illusion's head just fell aside a little as its name was spoken. It was an almost completely transparent image of Janus, limb-lessly on his knees. The only reason that he wasn't sprawled over the ground was that his arms were tightly enveloped in dark tentacles; their sharpness against his transparency giving a strong clue about how weak he was. With his head hanging it was impossible to see his face.

    Without a word of explanation the four humans knew that it was all that remained of the warlock they had known; trapped deep within Lavos' mind.

    Janus didn't produce even the tiniest sound in protest as what once had been his own hand grabbed his spirit's hair and threw him several yards aside; though the move was just another show of Lavos'. An illusion could not be touched even by the creator; it was the mind-power that moved the beaten soul and not the hand. 

    He didn't try to get up; didn't have the power. The tentacles rose however, carrying him with them. 

 "I like him better as crushed, don't you?" Lavos cruelly said.

    He did it all only to torture his opponents even more, and he did it well.

    The little focus Schala had managed for the hopeless battle ahead was completely shattered; she was desperately searching through the spoils for anything she could hold on to.

    Lavos would of course not give her that mercy. With a wide smirk he attacked, smashing his palm against Schala's chest. She fell backwards, unable to withstand the force.

 "Don't give up so soon, princess Schala," the parasite sneered, easily parrying a small, desperate icicle sent by Marle. 

   The blond princess' strength was almost drained after her struggle to save Crono. The young man clenched his teeth and tried to summon enough willpower for a spell, Lucca raised her gun in despair…

 "Laohn sha nebal!" 

    Lavos swiftly ducked for the glowing boomerang being hurled at his head, with amusement looking towards the fields facing the forest he had just wrecked havoc on.

 "I can't kill you just yet, lady," he said, mocking a mild tone.

 "Thou foul sherack!" a young woman's voice shouted, torn by hatred and grief.

 "Schaliya…" Schala croaked.

    Her daughter's simple white dress was blemished with blood, it covered her chest and stomach, crawling over her arms as if she had hugged a deadly wounded warrior. Her eyes weren't anything like they always had been, now burning with blind rage.

    In her hands was the Masamune, roughly broken in half.

 "I swear Lavos!" she shouted as she moved forward, "thou shalt pay!"

 "Hm."

    He smirked, amused.

 "I suppose I just have to convince you to calm down then…" he said, "for before you've reproduced I cannot kill you."

    Repro… she was…?

 "Schaliya, don't!" Schala croaked, stumbling to her feet.

 "Stay out of this, mother!" Schaliya hissed and glared at Marle, Crono and Lucca, "and so shall thee!"

    Janus' heavy head moved a little.

 "No…" came a weak, almost inaudible groan, "don't fight… trap…"

    But even though Schaliya perhaps heard her uncle's warning, she was still deaf for it. With a screech she flew at Lavos, and he parried her crippled weapon.

 "And in your state…" the alien almost purred, easily holding the scythe with his right hand while the left caught a dark glow.

 "Schaliya!" Schala screamed, seeing the danger that her daughter ignored in her frenzy.

 "Shut up!"

 "No…" Janus whispered.

    Still locked with Lavos, the young woman didn't even pay attention to his hand that was moving towards her like a praying demon.

 "Stop!" a sharp, strangely familiar voice came from out of nowhere.

    A shining star at the size of a fist shot down from the blue sky, crashing in between the two combatants and pushing them away from each other.

 "What the…" Lavos even growled.

    Schaliya stumbled further backwards as the star followed her, pushing her away.

 "When _he_ warns you about a trap, you better _listen_!" the voice growled. 

    It was obviously coming from the star. So familiar…?

 "You…?" Janus' whispered.

    All of a sudden it zoomed in the other direction, stopping  a couple of yards behind Lavos. Before he had time to turn around towards it, the star swept into an almost human form and sent out an arm. Something long, glowing and red whipped through the air.

 "Hey!" Lavos growled, clutching at the whip that had snaked itself several laps around his throat. 

    He didn't seem to have any troubles breathing however, more irritated by the interference.

 "Freaky…" Lucca managed to whisper, she the only one able to air her shock.

    A pink-skinned Mystic with his red hair in a pig-tail winced, placing one foot before the other and desperately bending backwards as he tried to keep Lavos in place.


	3. When all else fails

Chapter 3

"Come on already!" Flea shouted, glancing upwards for a second before his attention was forced back to the struggling parasite.

    If it hadn't been for the fact that the magician kept the whip so forcefully strained, Lavos could easily just have turned and cut it off either with magic or his scythe. Or rather, attacked the monster. But as it was now one movement too much would cause him to loose his balance and he was too proud for that. Rather he would pull in his own direction; Flea was by none expected strong enough to hold on for long. He already had apparent problems, desperately changing his grip and stance all the time.

    Schaliya hesitatingly changed her grip of the broken Masamune. Despite her shock at seeing Flea - whom she'd only known from her family's memories earlier – she was still nearly insane with grief over the death of her husband and the fate of her uncle's soul.

 "Lady, I'd appreciate if you'd hold back just for a few moments!" Flea cringed, wrapping a part of the whip around his hand for better grip.

 "This is rather pathetic, don't you find it so?" Lavos sneered, but there was a deadly edge in his voice.

 "Oh, it's sorta… Lizard, for heaven's sake! I can't hold him!"

    Two more stars finally shot down, penetrating Lavos' head with some notable trouble. He simply grunted a bit.

    Janus' moved his head a little as two figures hurried over to him; also displayed in the illusion. 

    Once again his weakened state was proven as his soul seemed like a shard of blemished ice before the two spirits that bent at him. 

    One human and one more monster.

 "Please Janus, there must be something left in you!" queen Zeal harshly pleaded, reaching out for him.

    Her hands went straight though his cheeks, he didn't even seem to feel the presence anymore as he showed no reaction. Lizard tried to grab the tentacles holding the warlock's arms, but even his fingers went through.

 "He's too far gone," the first king of Mystics grimly said, "we can do nothing here. Come, before he launches an attack against us."

    He took the queen's hand and almost dragged her off, all the while she kept reaching for her son with her free hand.

    The two stars popped out of Lavos head. One of them swept up behind Flea and became the monster, while Zeal hurried to Schala's side.

 "We're doing all we can," the queen promised in an almost steady voice, "whatever is in our power."

 "But if Lavos has him too well sealed…" Schala whispered, shaking her head in despair.

 "We couldn't do anything earlier, he was moving too fast. I'm sorry. But Janus might yet be able…"

 "Keep him still just a moment longer," Lizard growled, cutting the talking between the humans. 

 "Do you think this is easy?!" Flea snarled, twisting his grip again.

 "Just one more moment…"

 "I don't have a moment!"

    The whip was torn out of his grip and fell to the ground.

 "Oh crap."

    Lizard leaped aside, grabbing his own scythe from thin air. But Lavos didn't care about him. Spinning backwards, landing on his hands and leaping on like that repeatedly Flea managed to avoid the long, curved blade again and again, but it was a close call every time.

 "Guys! Little help here!" he shouted somewhere in the middle of another flap.

    A broken blade caught the scythe from aside, giving Flea time to land properly on his feet and flee in a better way. Schaliya dashed away too before Lavos had time to decide which one to attack first. The fact that he didn't want to kill her yet was about their single upper hand.

 "Fight someone your own size!" Lizard shouted and added with a mocking tone, "in any case, you'll loose. Like before."

    The parasite slowly turned at the Mystic king, now with pure hatred shown in his face.

    That thought-through move showed to be a bad idea.

    Three new stars arrived, entering the stolen head as Lavos wasn't moving fast enough. 

    A voice snarled from the direction of the illusion, causing several bystanders to cringe and spin to stare.

 "Magus! You worthless, stupid worm!" 

    A thin sword slashed at the tentacles holding Janus, but went through them and the soul just like when Zeal and Lizard had tried. 

 "Dammit!" Slash grunted under his breath.

    A fat green hand tried to slap the hanging head, but no luck there either.

 "Wake up you idiot!" Ozzie snarled, without gain trying to hit again, "look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!"

    Janus' head moved a little again, but that was all.

 "What the hell are they trying to do?" Lucca asked in a hoarse voice while Lavos attacked Lizard, sneering at the failed attempts in his head.

 "Just one single spark from Janus should be enough for us to touch him," Zeal muttered in a tense voice, "just one last grain of any emotion. Love can't reach him in his state…"

 "Hatred?" Marle asked, almost whispering.

 "It's our only hope."

 "Argh!" Ozzie shouted in frustration, "I don't believe this! Thirteen years I wasted trying to teach this lowlife something and he won't even give me  sign of life! You're worthless, you know that Magus?!"

 "It's not working…" Slash said with an ironical roll of his eyes, "then again, he was never the brightest."

 "'Never the brightest' is too kind and you know it," Ozzie scoffed with one more look in disgust at the soul, "fool."

    His white robs swirled as he turned around, shaking his head in detest.

 "I wash my hands of the whole thing, he's lost forever."

 "Like I ever wanted to help anyway," Slash snorted, apathetically poking at the tentacles with the Slasher. 

    He looked back at something not displayed in the illusion.

 "You must be ashamed," he said, pointing at Janus with his thumb, "he doesn't even deserve loathing."

 "Ashamed you call it? Pha!"

    A red-brown cloak swept about as a tall man with long, dark-blond hair pranced up in front of the bound soul and sat down on one knee to smirk at the nearly transparent head.

 "You're an insignificant freak, boy," Dalton growled, still sneering, "do you hear me? I'm glad this is your end, you shouldn't even have been born. Not even your precious sister will care after seeing you like this. You're pathetic. Pathetic!"

 "Ngh…"

    Janus head moved a little. The small moan was so weak that anyone hearing it hardly could believe it even had existed.

 "Pathetic miscarriage!" Dalton spat.

 "You…"

    Slowly, wobbly, Janus' lifted his head and tiredly glared straight at his father.

 "Gotcha!" 

    The Slasher penetrated the tentacles on the soul's left arm just as Ozzie tore the right one free. Janus fell forwards limblessly, but Dalton caught him.

    Lavos roared in pain, stumbling backwards away from a triumphantly smirking Lizard.

 "We've got him!" Dalton shouted, leaping out of sight from the illusion. 

 "Bless you!" Zeal called as the three stars zoomed out of Lavos' head and rushed over to her.

    Dalton carrying Janus' limp body was a strange sight indeed. The warlock seemed to have turned even more transparent as he was brought out, his eyes closed and his cloak being dragged over the ground as Dalton carefully handed him over to his mother. Zeal lowered him to the ground, supporting him by the shoulders. He didn't show any signs of life however.

 "Curse you insects!" Lavos roared, rushing at the group in rage. 

    Crono tried to get a spell ready, Schaliya leaped up in front of her relatives with the broken Masamune ready to parry.

    But they were both bested by Slash and Ozzie. The thin sword the purple monster wielded flashed with light from the green one's hands, parrying the scythe quite nicely. But it was apparent that Lavos would win in the long run; Slash was almost brought to his knees by the blow.

 "Flea! Get over here right now and help, you wimp!" Ozzie snarled, the bolts of lights from his palms to the weapon desperately intensifying.

 "Can we defeat him?" Marle croaked, fumbling with Crono's arms as he staggered again.

 "_We_ couldn't even defeat _you_," Dalton mildly pointed out before spinning around and sending a stream of light towards the stolen body.

    The blow was deflected by a dark ray from Lavos' eyes, and the very same soon threw Ozzie and Slash backwards past the assembled heroes. Queen Zeal defensively hugged her son's shoulders while Schaliya, her mother and Dalton stubbornly blocked the parasite's way.  

 "So we're going down, that's what you're saying?" Lucca harshly said, fiddling with her gun.

    In the next moment she had to duck since Dalton passed over her head in a not very graceful bow.

 "The things I'll go through!" Ozzie snarled, stumbling halfway back to help Schala and Schaliya with their weapons, "and all because of _him_!"

 "Hey! Keep it up!" Lizard shouted, joining the fun of trying to push Lavos' backwards.

 "Yes Lizard."

 "What are you complaining about?" Dalton snarled, cursing under his breath as yet another one of his blasts proved worthless, "you're taking orders from your bloody idolized ancestor, I'm taking orders from a monster!"

 "Watch your tongue, human!" Slash growled, taking Schala and Lizard's place as they were sent flying as well.

    Lavos was still going softer on Schaliya, but that wouldn't help for long at this rate. He was much stronger than the dead and alive warriors together.

 "Levana, get Janus out of here already!" Dalton shouted.

 "Right away," queen Zeal grimly nodded.

    She bent over the seemingly unconscious Janus, gently moving in one arm under his knees while the other hugged his shoulders. As she straightened up, carrying him as if he didn't weigh anything at all, a soft light enveloped his slumping body. He seemed to shrink.

    Within a few seconds the queen wasn't carrying a full grown man, but the child once lost to the Mystics. He even wore his purple robes, curled up in his mother's arms seemingly asleep. As if his last strength had been focused when he lost size, he now seemed less transparent than before. 

    Schala nearly choked as she got to her feet, seeing her mother tenderly hold Janus as both of the siblings long ago had wished she would.

 "Will he be alright?" she nearly sobbed.

 "It'll take a while but we have the eternity," Levana Zeal said in a hushed, thick voice, "he'll be fine…"

    She turned around and grimly looked at Schala. 

 "But this doesn't have to be," the queen said, "you might still stop all this from happening if you make it back before Lavos defeats Molor. You must help him."  

    Lizard hit the ground by Levana's feet.

 "We're going to need the best we've got…" he said, lightly slurring, "this isn't working."

 "I'll send her down," the queen said, suddenly with a small smirk.

 "Her?" Ozzie, Slash, Dalton and Flea croaked.

    The latter even dropped the new whip he had been about to use from behind Lavos' back.

 "Yes, I see no other solution," Lizard merrily said, getting to his feet and picking up the scythe.

    Slash was pushed several feet backwards as he tried to keep Lavos at bay and talking at the same time.

 "Oh no, no, no milord," he almost pleaded, "I'm sure, that's exaggerating…"

 "Yes," Dalton hurriedly added, "we can surely handle this…"

 "Can you hit him at all, human?" Lizard mildly asked.

 "I, ah…"

 "I'm getting her," the queen nodded, beginning to glow.

    Just before she turned into a star she looked down at her son, smiling a bit bitterly but still fondly.

 "Come on, Janus," she mumbled, "Alfador has missed you."

    Her star shot up towards the blue sky.

 "Lizard! You're getting us all killed again!" Ozzie groaned, "are you out of your mind?"

 "You're already being killed you moron!" the ancestor grunted and waved at the spectators to back off.

 "Sure, but it's not by a psychopathic banshee!"

    By now Schala and the other alive ones had grown almost more perplexed than scared.

 "Who are you calling a banshee, Ozzie?" a very sharp female voice snapped.

 "Ah!" 

    On cue those who had spoken ill of the help threw themselves aside, nearly causing Lizard and Lavos to fall over each other.

    A new star landed, turning into… another monster. 

    It was a female, with bluish skin and hair that she kept loosely falling past her shoulders. She was dressed in the same kind of simple tunic that Lizard wore, and in her deeply green eyes were murder. 

 "You?!" Lavos snarled.

 "Her?" Schala mumbled, confused.

    She seemed familiar to the princess, but somehow from more than one place. The memory escaped her grip as she tried to catch it…

 "Welcome, love," Lizard said, still working on his balance.

 "What the heck?" Lucca confusedly said.

 "Lady Snake," Slash groaned from somewhere on the ground behind the scientist, "this will get messy…"

 "What kind of heroes are you?" Snake grunted, cracking her knuckles, "men!"

    Glancing at the carefully backing Flea she added:

 "And you're not excused."

    Lavos threw Lizard aside like a fly and fully concentrated on the ancient lady Mystic.

 "I remember you," he growled.

    Snake gave a lovely smiled, flashing two rows of fangs.

 "That's so sweet of you. Now what did we do that first time we met?"

    She mocked thoughtfulness for a moment, then smirked.

 "Ah yes… I played nutcracker with your thick spiky shell in the Ocean Palace. That was _so_ romantic!"

    _Darkness surrounding, dark energy drawing closer, it will eat me… Janus, what happened to you, mother, why? Why did that boy Crono die for us, sacrificing himself to Lavos… I must get out of here…_

    Schala's mind swirled as she remembered her last moments in the falling Ocean Palace, back then paralyzed by shock and drain of power. Nearly insane of fear and despair.

    _He's here, he's coming for me too… there's no escape I…coming closer, I can feel him…just behind me, I can't move…_

_ "Hang on, woman!"_

_    A fist smashed through the air and there was an unearthly screech of pain._

_ "Go, get out of here!"_

_    It was too dark to see, but there was something blue…_

_    A rough-skinned hand holding her arm, throwing her into a swirling darkness filled with eerie colors…_

 "You saved me…?" Schala whispered.

 (Author's note:

    That part concerned yet another part of this series; Schala's journeys to find Janus. Don't kill me! Ahhh!)

    Though she hardly even heard herself, Snake glanced at the blue-haired human for a second and even winked with one eye before turning back to the main dish.

 "So, care to dance again?" she smirked.

    And then… she disappeared.

    But Lavos was sent flying aside with a roar of rage. Before he even had landed Snake was at him, causing him to stumble backwards with a tornado of punches. Her hands and arms were almost invisible, only clearly seen when she spun around to kick instead. The scythe instantly fell to the ground.

    He didn't have a chance too parry.

    For a moment everyone else just watched in silence.

    Then Marle kicked at Ozzie's stomach, as he was still on the ground.

 "Excuse me for asking," the blond princess begun in a calm voice that quickly changed as she went on, "but _why_ didn't you bring her here earlier?!"

 "It's quite simple," Lizard said in a low voice, shielding his mouth with a hand in the combatants' direction, "we can only come down here to help in extreme circumstances, and even so we have only one chance. If we 'die' again we can never come back. And Snake, well… to be honest, she can only hold up for about a minute. Then she's completely drained."

 "Thirty seconds and counting…" Slash grimly snarled, gripping his weapon tightly.

 "We'll handle this!" Lizard grimly said, "you must go help Janus, quickly!"

 "Yes, of course…" Schala said.

    She hurriedly raised her hands and began mumbling.

 "I will stay here, mother," Schaliya said with a bitter smile, "I have no wish to exist in a time stream where Glenn is dead."

 "I understand," the mother whispered, tearing the Gate open and diving in.

 Good luck you guys, Crono said before following the blue-haired one, man… did I say that to you?

 "Get lost, human!" Ozzie snarled, preparing a  new spell as Snake retreated, gasping for air.

    Lavos was bleeding from a vast collection of tears and deep cuts apart from the bruises, but not nearly defeated. And by now he was getting close to berserk.  

    Lucca dove in last, the final thing she saw being Schaliya, Dalton and the monsters attacking Lavos simultaneously. Who'd win was hard to say. 

    But the inventor would never know as she rushed through time, following her friends to prevent the horrifying bloodshed to occur.


	4. Mind battle

Chapter 4

"Cered!" Schala screeched, tumbling out of the Gate in the middle of the corridor on the upper floor, closely followed by Marle, Crono and Lucca.

 "Desert rose?"

    Her husband nearly broke out of Ceredan and Janatzer's room, falling down before Schala and grabbing her trembling shoulders.

 "What is wrong, love?" he worriedly demanded.

 "Janus, he was lost where I went…" Schala croaked, shivers running through her entire body.

 "But he is well here…" Cered said in a soothing voice after a moment of shocked silence.

    One thing to give that man, he could control himself almost inhumanly well sometimes.

 "We have to help him or Molor will loose!" Marle called, stumbling to her feet.

 "Mother?" 

    Ceredan came out of the same room his father had left, still pale and with tears for a dead brother blemishing his young face.

 "Schala, get a grip!" Lucca said, trying to calm the woman, "you have to focus!"

 "Yes… yes, you're right…"

    Cered gently helped her stand, then the blue-haired woman could walk by herself. They all hurried into Janus and Molor's room.

    Marle let out a shriek and so did Ceredan. Lucca almost fainted, Crono backed in horror, Cered paled and Schala nearly dropped dead.

    Eerie, damp light fell through the curtain, giving the whole scene a ghostly glow, like a newly opened tomb.

    Janus laid stretched out on his bed unconscious, his face pale as a skull. Molor's long, black body was wrapped tightly around the warlock in a seemingly deadly trap. Blood lazily trickled down and spread over the blanket, leaking out from the snake's mouth that almost appeared to be closed over Janus' right upper arm. 

 "I… I'm sorry, I forgot…" Schala stammered in a weak voice.

    Marle spun around and dove back into the corridor, fighting with all her might not to retch. She and everyone else had seen a lot of wounds in their days, but just the way that Molor seemed to have bitten off the arm, still holding it in place with his long teeth, was so disgusting that even the warriors' stomachs wanted to turn. 

 "The powers bless fate for not bringing Schaliya here…" Cered mumbled in an unsteady voice, quickly turning his son around and pushing Ceredan out of the room.

    Assembling the last pieces of mind she could grip Schala stumbled over to the bed and fell to her knees by the horrifying scene.

 "I'll have to help Molor…" she croaked, shaking as she gripped the pendant hanging around her neck.

 "Thou art in no shape for this, sunlight!" Cered warned, his warm hands gently grabbing her shoulders.

 "I know, but I have to, Cered…" 

 "Shh…"

    Whispering calmingly Crono's ancestor pulled up his wife against his familiar, strong heartbeat.

 "Thou musteth assemble the power thou hath first, less we will fall."

    Leaning against her husband Schala took in a few deep breaths, waiting for her pulse to become slower and her head to clear.

    Finally she nodded, but Cered still kept his hands on her shoulders to reassure her strength as the woman once again closed her hands around the magical accessory she wore.

 "You can't have him!" she hissed, focusing all her will.

    Rays of light from the pendant shot out through the cracks between Schala's fingers. 

    Cered gently caught the blue-haired body as it slumped; an empty shell. But the fine fingers kept their grip of the magical jewelry.

Magic slashed through the air and met claws, gigantic hands parried wave upon wave of fire. 

    For some reason Janus' protector had taken his dragon form, but he wasn't larger than a horse. Perhaps it was because of the alien's grip of the mind the war was waged within.

    Molor's blood-red wings swept out, the claws on their corners cutting into a floating blob each. Lavos growled in pain and raised a hand.

 "Ahh!"

    Schala stumbled into the dark world just in time to see her brother powerlessly writhe in pain as a ghostly light flowed out of his hanging form towards the distant combatants. 

    Molor was thrown backwards and Lavos attacked him with new energy.

 "Coward!" the dragon hissed.

 "Did you expect me to play fair when I have an expendable source of power?" the parasite smirked.

 "Leave him out of this!" Molor roared and lunged at his foe.

    Janus' head slowly swung back and forth, spasms going through his lightly transparent body every now and then. Schala rushed over to him, rather floating than running. Helplessly she gazed up at him; he seemed as unreachable as he had been for her mother and Lizard. He wasn't slumping on his knees yet, for the moment he was hanging with his arms stretched out. Almost as if he was put on a cross of death. Schala shuddered at the mental image.

 "Janus, can you hear me?" she whispered, afraid that Lavos would attack her if she was discovered.

    His eyes were closed, a tortured grimace disrupting his face.

    Once again he groaned and struggled as yet another dose of light left him. 

    He turned a little more transparent and sunk a few inches towards the ground…

    Schala's gaze flew to the battle; Lavos was attacking Molor even more furiously, even though the dragon still held his stance he wouldn't hold out for long if Janus' life force kept refilling the demon.

 "So that's how…" the princess hissed.

 "_No_!"

    The cry sent shivers through Schala's soul and she helplessly reached up for Janus.

 "I'm here, what's the matter?" she whispered.

    His head wobbled, the grimace growing tortured beyond compare.

 "Not Schaliya…" he croaked in a broken voice, "don't let Schaliya…"

 "Janus!" Schala called, forgetting carefulness in her fear, "Schaliya isn't here! She's safe! Can you hear me?!"

 "Schala… no…"

    Slowly Janus' eyes cracked open and he gazed down at her, only a hint of his red irises visible between the slits.

 "We have to do something, have to get you out of reach from Lavos!" she whispered, reaching up.

    To her relief she could indeed touch him, but it was like putting a hand against a pile of leaves.

 "Can't move…" he slurred, "too weak…"

 "I don't know anything about these things, Janus!" Schala helplessly croaked, "how can I help you?"

    He shook his head; clumsily moving his head from side to side.

 "Molor could but… he's busy," he muttered, "you… need my power…"

 "But you were drained, how…"

 "There's a little left… but I don't have it…"

 "What?"

 "You wait for your turn!" Lavos roared.

    Schala spun around, but his force threw her backwards and out before she could parry. With a shriek she sat straight up in Cered's arms. 

 "What happened?!" the conscious humans around her shouted in alarm.

 "I'm fine, but Molor is loosing…" Schala muttered in a broken voice.

    There's a little left, but I don't have it…

 "What did he mean?" she whispered in confusion, helplessly massaging her forehead.

 "How is Janus?" Cered grimly asked.

 "Not good… this isn't my area!" 

    Schala reached out in despair and grabbed her brother's slumping shoulders.

 "Janus know how to work minds, I don't! What did he mean?!" she croaked.

 "Mean with what?" Lucca harshly demanded.

 "He said we needed his power, that there was a little left but that he didn't have it. I don't know what he meant!"

 "Schala…" Cered helplessly said.

 "What can I do, Janus?!" the blue-haired woman called to the pale, lifeless face before her, oblivious to everyone else.

 'Lady Schala!'

    They all jumped at the mental call, it was lightly said clumsy. 

 'What?' Schala replied, searching for the source of the sound.

 'Canst thee hear me?' the female voice asked with relief.

    Wait a…

 'Lashey?' Schala said in puzzlement.

 'Yes, 'tis I. What is happening?'

 'How do you do that?' Crono quickly cut in, 'I thought you didn't know any magic.'

 'So is the truth,' the empress grimly replied, 'the power is not mine but from the brooch Janus gave me.'

 "The brooch…?" Schala whispered aloud.

    She straightened up, wild hope lightning her eyes.

 "_That's_ what he meant!"

 'Lashey, I'm going to teleport you here,' she called in her thoughts, 'Janus and Molor are in grave danger, we need that brooch!'

 'Very well, hurry then!' the empress quickly agreed.

    Schala's chanting was almost too quick to hear.

    Theoretically the teleportation spell didn't work on people that weren't in the caster's closest area, but keeping a firm grip of the mental call Schala managed to establish an anchor. 

    A swirl of light shot up from the floor in the middle of the room, taking a human form. As she fully appeared Lashey stumbled but managed to keep her balance by grabbing the edge of Janus' desk.

    She was older, of course. It had been seventeen years.

    Her once freely falling, black hair was put up in a typical Garadian hairstyle; black silk ribbons and jeweled, golden needles keeping it in place. Instead of the simple red dress she had worn all those years ago she now carried a mostly blue, exaggeratedly designed and embroidered cloth. One could surely read a part of the empire's history in the folds.

    The most notable thing on her face was a bruise on the left side of her head, almost touching the eye. It was seen through four lines in her pale make-up; almost as if she had torn her fingers over it in rage over the hiding or in despair.

 "Here, what canst be done?" she said with a light gasp after the hasty transport.

    Almost tearing she ripped her long right sleeve upwards to reveal her hand the little snake-formed brooch in it. The jewelry was glowing tiredly, almost like Janus' eyes when he was troubled.

 "Molor is fighting an intruding mind for Janus' soul, but he's loosing since the demon is absorbing my brother's power," Schala quickly explained, "we need to try to help Janus move himself out of reach."

 "How shall we do that?" Lashey asked, walking up to the blue-haired woman's side.

    Strangely, she didn't seem to shun as much as the others at the sight of the state of snake and warlock. But perhaps she was too determined to help.

 "I'll try to figure out why you can use its power later," Schala grimly said and took the empress' hands, "as for now… magic is a great deal of will and imagination of the consequences. I want you to imagine Janus, hanging in a great darkness as if he was crucified on an invisible cross."

 "Very well," Lashey nodded, closing her eyes with a frown.

 "Keep focusing on that," the princess from Zeal instructed, "we'll focus our power into the brooch. It's going to feel warm when we manage. When you feel that, keep concentrating on Janus but add streams of light reaching out for him. That'll lead our power to him."

 'Hopefully,' she silently added.

    Lashey just nodded, her frown growing deeper and her hands clutching the brooch. Looking around Schala received determined nods from her friends and family.

    They all closed their eyes, concentrating on the brooch.

    Its heritage from Janus' hair and own magic made it a connection to the warlock, stronger than anything anyone else ever could have created. But just sending power to it wouldn't help, it would just stay there. So it was up to Lashey to send it onwards.

    Schala could of course have tried to channel the power onwards by herself, it could have been a safer way since she at least had experience with magic. But there was a risk that she wouldn't be able to invoke the brooch's power; the empress on the other hand had already proved that she could. Though it was risky, time was running out.

    If anyone still had had their eyes opened they would have seen the light that even enveloped Lashey's fine hands and the edges of her sleeves. Slowly the light began to drip down onto the floor, gracefully slithering up on the bed and there flow into the air to rain down over the human body. 

    Afraid of loosing their chance none of the humans dared opening their eyes for a stretched handful of seconds, forcing more and more of their strength towards the goal they didn't even know could be reached.

    But all of a sudden they all looked up in surprise, the light faltering to nothingness within a heartbeat. All because of a raspy voice speaking.

 "That's enough."

 "Molor?" Schala, Cered, Ceredan, Lucca, Marle and Crono moaned in defeat, nearly dropping to their knees in the devouring hopelessness.

    Beaten.

    The black head swayed a little just above Janus' chest; the snake seemed a bit disoriented.

 "Careful," Lashey gently said, "less thou will crush thyself."

 "Easy for you to say," Molor's voice gruffly said.

    But there was a softer edge in the words.

    Slowly Schala and her allies looked up again. 

    The snake was very carefully, clumsily unwrapping its body from the human's.

 "This isn't easy in case you think so," the raspy voice commented, the cold eyes flicking with concentration.

    He gave a short, dry chuckle.

 "Molor was right when he said the human language burns his throat…"

 "_Janus_?"

 "I had to go somewhere, and this is probably the safest place there is right now," the warlock in the snake's body replied, trying to force a faint smile into existence.

    His borrowed lips weren't well suited for it however, and he wasn't really in the best mood either.

 "Thank all the powers you're alright!" Schala nearly shrieked, wrapping her arms around the black neck. 

 "Lightly spoken, Schala…" Janus softly said, leaning his black head against her shoulder.

 "We thought you were a goner!" Lucca breathed in relief as Ceredan sunk down on his knees to also hug his saved uncle.

 "Well, it's not over yet," the warlock grimly said, shaking his head, "Molor hasn't won yet though he also got power from you."

    He glanced up at Lashey as his nephew let him go.

 "Thanks, I suppose," he said with the gruff voice once again.

    The empress gave him a rather strange, somehow knowing smile.

 "Now let me try to work this out," Janus added, a little too quickly.

    Nobody commented, wisely, as the warlock carefully moved and finally managed to unwrap his borrowed body from his real one. Somewhat clumsily he slithered down on the floor.

 "How do you feel?" Schala worriedly asked, putting her hand on his neck.

    He shook his head, opening his mouth a bit in a sort of grimace.

 "Could be better…" he bitterly muttered, "Lavos fooling me all these years, Molor risking his soul for me and my mouth is full of the taste of my own blood. Ugh…"

    Everyone dove to their knees to catch him as he swayed. Keeping his head low instead of at his friends' knee height Janus grunted a bit.

 "I'm just disoriented in this body…" he assured.

 "I'll get thee a little water," Cered said and hurriedly left the room.

    A cold eye tiredly looked up at Schala; Janus wasn't used to the position of the eyes and turned his whole head to the side to look at her.

 "I don't know what good it'll do but I think we better seal my body, just in case."

 "I'm not in an idea mood right now, too tired," Schala sighed and rubbed her forehead, "suggestions please?"

 "Usual magic won't hold him…"

 "We'd need something that not even Janus can break, that would be a good start I suppose," Lucca said.

    Schala was silent for a moment. Then she stood, holding up her pendant again.

 "Well, it might not hold Lavos but I have something…" she grimly said.

 "Heh…" Janus grunted.

 "Sorry about this," the blue-haired woman grimaced before she began muttering in a low voice.

    On a final wave with her hand red tentacles swept up from the mattress and clung onto the body's wrists and ankles. 

    The old gift from Dalton.

 "I don't know anything stronger than that," she strengthened her apology.

 "I think we should get out of here," Marle suggested, looking away from the bloodied holes in the warlock's arm with a shudder.

 "Watch out, I can't really control Molor's body," Janus tiredly grunted and tried to slither over the floor.

    He managed, but clumsily. Luckily there were no furniture in his way.

    Eventually they made their way into Janatzer's room. Though being in the same room as a dead body didn't feel pleasant, leaving him alone felt utterly wrong. And it was the room farthest from the soul battle, at least on the second floor. None trusted Janus to be able to get the borrowed body down the stair without a catastrophe.

    During Schala's absence Cered had swept up his dead son in a blanket to make him look a little better. Where the stretcher that Janatzer was lying on had come from, the wife didn't know but it didn't matter.

 "Oh dear…" Marle mumbled, "I'm sorry."

    Crono and Lucca silently nodded.

 "We'll think of something," Schala tried to ensure everyone.

    But she wasn't sure at all. Janus had been the only one she knew with enough power and knowledge to perform a resurrection, but now not even their combined power led through him would be enough. The fact that Janatzer had been dead for a while wasn't helping, speed was important when bringing someone back to life in good shape. She didn't want to have a zombie as a son.

    Cered came into the room, carrying a bucket of water. Non-ceremonially Janus plunged his whole black head into the liquid to seep it up; he was too exhausted and worried to care about grace.

    After a few seconds the humans began to wonder if he was trying to drown himself, but he soon enough came back up and the bucket was pretty much empty.

 "Better?" Cered asked.

 "A bit," Janus muttered and heavily laid on the floor.

    To everyone's surprise he didn't protest when Lashey sat down and began to dry off the remaining water from his head with her long sleeve.

 "I am sorry for what happened," the empress said in a bitter voice and glanced at Cered and Schala, "I could not stop my husband when he ordered thy son to the front line."

 "It's not your fault," the blue-haired woman gently said.

 "This might not be the time," Janus muttered, "but where is Schaliya and Glenn?"

    Schala stiffened and looked away, Crono and the women from his hometown stared at the floor.

 "Aha," Janus bitterly grunted, "I see. It was true."

 "What was true?" Schala whispered.

 "You heard me scream in there," her brother grunted, "he was keeping me in the state he desired by showing me what he planned. I had a feeling it could be a vision of a possible future."

 "Lizard and mother… they saved you."

 "They came, did they?"

    Janus shook his head a little.

 "That I did not see," he said, "I did see Schaliya come out victorious though, if that's the word. It was almost too much."

    He somehow managed to grimace a little. 

 "Can only hope she'll be alright now."

 "What did she…" Lucca began, but fell silent as she heard a crash from the corridor.

    They all stiffened and looked up, staring at the door.

    Finally Cered held up a hand and clenched his teeth as he walked over to the exit. He slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

    For seconds that seemed like ages everything was silent. Then came a blessed familiar voice.

 "Damn human legs!"

    The door swung open to reveal Cered doing his best to support the heavy, staggering body of Janus. The eyes in the pale face were normal; not engulfed with red light. Rather frustrated though.

 "How do you humans manage to walk on these things?" Janus' voice grunted with a tone belonging to none but Molor.


	5. Plans and family

Chapter 5

"Bless you!" Schala shouted.

    And that was the common opinion.

 "Where is Lavos?" Janus asked with relief.

    Cered helped Molor to slump down on the floor, and he did his best to support himself with his borrowed arms.

 "He's gone, as driven out of existence as is possible," the dragon in the human body said with a faint triumphant smirk, "it wasn't easy however. And I had some trouble getting rid of those tentacles too."

 "Sorry about that," Schala said.

 "It's fine. All you need to get free from them is actually a certain pattern of magic, it might be hard for a human to grasp though. Anyway…"

    He sighed,  tiredly.

 "Just let me rest for a few minutes and then we can switch back."

    There was a short silence.

 "Should I… get Schaliya and Glenn?" Schala finally said, glancing towards her dead son.

 "It won't do any good to hope," Janus bitterly said and shook his borrowed head, "I can't do it anymore. And he's too far gone now in any case. I wouldn't have been able to bring him back even if I still had my powers."

    A thicker silence filled the room, this one only sorrowful. Marle leaned at Crono, Cered reached out for Schala as Ceredan heavily sat down on the floor. Lucca stared at the ground, clenching and unclenching her hands helplessly. Lashey just looked away from everyone else. 

    A dry sound pierced the scene. Almost like a chuckle.

 "What?" Janus muttered, watching his own body ironically smile.

 "I had an interesting idea," Molor said with a light, thoughtful smirk, "your power alone would not have helped, but what about twice the amount?"

    Janus hissed; it took a moment to realize that it was the closest to a laugh he could produce in his current state.

 "Of course," he said, "I suppose it could be possible."

 "What of it?" the rest of the room asked.

 "A little game with destinies," Molor said with a more proper smirk, "provided Janus can find his ways through a different kind of Gate."

 "I've still got all the powers he didn't feel a need for, I could manage."

    The snake straightened up.

 "I'll get the help we need, from other lives," he said, almost grinning.

 "Are you planning to go back to the past and get yourself or what?" Lucca wondered.

 "No, that wouldn't work. That could endanger history and we've had enough of that already," Janus said, "but as you might remember from the time we had troubles with Charash I suddenly knew that Dalton was my father." 

 "Yes, I clearly remember that one," Schala said with a slight grimace, "you were dreaming about another life, right?"

 "Correct; I learnt to know a different version of my path, and that Janus found out about Dalton. He managed to travel to and from a third version of me, and I think I can remember how he did it."

 "Isn't that risky?" Marle asked. 

 "Probably, but I'm not leaving Janatzer dead."

    Even the cold eyes of Molor's body glowed with determination.

 "Are you ready to switch back?" he asked his companion.

 "I'll manage."

    As he wasn't used to human arms, Molor was rather clumsy as he reached out and carefully took his own head between his borrowed hands. He leaned forwards and Janus reached up until their foreheads met and the human body closed his eyes. 

    A stream of light flashed between their heads and they recoiled with a grunt. 

 "Did you make it?" Schala worriedly asked.

    The human lifted his hands to his face and rubbed it with movements too distinct to be the ones of a guest.

 "Yes…" Janus muttered, "but I feel like hell…"

    Marle took that as a perfect reason to cover him in healing stars.

 "Much better…" Molor muttered while Janus straightened up.

    The snake coiled himself up in a dark tower of muscles and scales with a sigh of relief.

 "Art thee going right away, brother?" Cered protested as Janus made a suspicious stretching movement as if to get ready to move forcefully, "in thy state!"

 "I have to get this over with," the warlock grimly stated, "the longer Janatzer is dead, the harder it'll be to get him back. It's a question of a few hours if you're trying to perform a resurrection."

    Schala's husband fell short of protests in face of that.

 "You can go to get Schaliya and Glenn now," Janus said and turned to Schala.

    He looked at Molor, who waved a bit with the tip of his tail in an understanding movement. Whatever it was Janus had meant to say, the snake already knew. So the warlock kept turning.

 "And you, don't do anything until I get back."

 "We weren't planning too, commander," Lucca said with a  hint of irony in her grim voice.

 "Good."

    Janus faced Lashey, who sternly looked back at him with concern.

    He held back a sigh.

 "I don't know how much magic power you have, but you must have a bit since you could use the brooch," he acknowledged, "we'll need all help we can get."

 "I understand, lord Janus. I will do anything possible to repay my husband's sin."

    Janus looked away, shaking his head. 

    The empress' face showed naught.

 "I'm going then," the warlock muttered and raised his hands.

    His lips moved without a sound, not leaving his secret spell to anybody. 

    At first nothing happened and Janus deeply frowned in frustration. Once again he tried the spell, and this time a Gate did begin to open before him. But it went much slower than usual, several seconds passed before it was big enough for him to pass through.

    Without a glance backwards the warlock entered the darkness and it closed behind him with a hiss.

 "Will he be well?" Lashey worriedly asked.

 He's too damn stubborn to even consider failing, Crono muttered even though he tried to sound optimistic, it's one of his sides that I'm not sure is good or bad. He's got loads of those.

 "I see…"

 "I'll be back soon, as well," Schala announced and easily ripped a Gate open before her.

    She hurried through without awaiting a word from anyone.

    Silence settled for a few moments.

 "It's not often they show that kind of proof of being siblings but…" Lucca muttered and sat down on one of the room's low beds.

    There were two beds of course, since it was the room of two young men. One by each side wall. Apart from that it was a fairly naked place, furniture wise. A fine, bluish carpet covered most of the floor and there were a few pots with big leafed plants in the two otherwise empty corners, but apart from that and Ceredan's staff resting against the wall beside the door, it was empty. It was a room for resting, not living in. 

    And Janatzer's body was on a stretcher, supported above the floor by a pair of crossed wooden legs. Marle thought it looked like a military bed, but apart from her idle thought nobody really bothered about what the dead son was resting on.

    Seconds snailed by.

    Finally Cered felt himself forced to break the silence.

 "I'm sorry thee had to experience these horrors, my empress," he sadly said.

    Lashey tried to smile a little but failed.

 "'Twas my fault, sir Cered," she bitterly said, "in the truth as thee all know, I was the one who chose lord Sere as my husband and thus the emperor who caused thy son's death."

    She hardly had time to finish her sentence before she was attacked by profuse reassurances that it wasn't her fault. This was the first time that the woman actually showed a sign of being taken aback. She almost took a step backwards as almost everyone else in the room dived for her defense.

 "Thou could not know that he carried such raw ambitions within, my empress!" Cered resolutely stated.

 "Indeed, my father speaketh the truth!" Ceredan chimed in, "'twas by no means thine crime!"

 Really now! the fruit of the two men's family lines snorted.

 "Listen lady, you're looking at this the entirely wrong way," Lucca growled, "how was you to know that that damn parasite had infested Janus' mind and just was waiting for a chance to attack? It wouldn't surprise me if Lavos was behind this entire mess, he's done stuff like it before."

    Lashey blinked at the support, surprised by their overwhelming kindness. She wasn't used to feelings being expressed this way.

 "I… thank thee, however…" she began.

    But as Marle held forth a perfectly clean handkerchief with a careful smile, the empress' voice trailed off.

 "Here," the princess gently said, "why don't you get rid of that makeup and I'll heal that nasty bruise."

    Lashey stared at the much younger woman for a moment, then her hand flew to the tears in the powder as if she had forgotten all about it.

 "I… nay…" she mumbled, shaking her head.

 "How can you blame yourself when you've got such a bastard of a husband?" Marle demanded.

    The harsh words sounded alien in her mouth and even her friends looked strangely at her. 

    The crystal-blue eyes below a smooth forehead and blond hair were hard as steel, nothing like the princess everyone knew.

    Without a word Marle took Lashey's hand and forcefully put the handkerchief in the shivering palm.

 "We should all give Janus a harsh one for leaving you to that demon," the princess angrily stated.

    Lashey blinked again. And she wasn't the only one.

    There was a dryly amused hiss. Marle shot Molor a heated look.

 "Do not misunderstand me," the snake said and laid his head back on the highest coil, "I'm not expressing any scorn."

 "Then why were you laughing?" the princess demanded.

 "It is because I saw something familiar for a moment," Molor said.

    He straightened up a little again and shook his head.

 "Accept her help, empress," he said, "and stop blaming yourself."

    His tongue played nervously before he reluctantly added:

 "When mating you can never see the fruit of your choice until it faces you, such is the rule of life."

    Silence fell again as all eyes rested on Molor, hesitantly.

    A few moments moved by.

    The snake sighed.

 "You understand fully well what I might have meant, and yes it is so," he gruffly said, "but Janus doesn't know it and if you tell him I'll swallow you whole. It's not pleasant. What I mean, empress…"

    He glared at her again.

 "… Is that making a mistake does not place the entire guilt on you. What you did might have given life to these slumbering dangers, but your fault, it was not."

 "Molor, I need to make it clear," Lucca said in a somewhat weak voice, "are you…?"

    The snake hissed, irritated.

 "Listen, inventor," he said, "this is not the place nor time to discuss it and I only brought it up to make it clear for the empress that her shame is unprovoked. I do not want to delve further in that matter, understand?"

 "Yep, you are," Lucca calmly concluded.

    Molor grunted, frustrated. 

 "I am not in the mood this, humans," he said and his head disappeared into his own private tower.

 "And I thought he and Janus were perfectly alike…" Marle mumbled to Cered, who shook his head in disbelief.

 "Let it go already!" Molor growled, "I should have kept my mouth shut…"

 "I actually had a suspicion," the princess carefully said, "but I didn't ask since I didn't want to bother you with something like it."

 "I am most grateful," the snake muttered.

    Marle turned to Lashey and found that she was somewhat hesitantly removing her makeup with the handkerchief.

 "Who'd imagine he was the father type…" Lucca muttered to Crono, who shook his head in disbelief.

 "I can hear you perfectly," Molor coldly informed, "one more word about my son and I swear you'll see the inside of my stomach."

 "Alright already, cut the death threats. I'll shut up. Geez…"

    Lucca rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smirk a little at the pure obscurity. 

    The princess of Guardia was carefully working on removing the bluish, aching spot from Lashey's face when a Gate opened again, causing everyone to spin at it.

    But it wasn't Janus who came back, it were Schaliya and Glenn who stumbled out. Schala followed them closely and the darkness shrunk into nothingness behind her.

 "Isn't he back yet?" the older woman asked, looking around.

    The only reply were head shakings, while the daughter of the house hurried over to her oldest brother's side.

    Crono, Marle and Lucca looked at Schaliya's white dress, exchanged glances and winced. 

    It was a white sundress with no sleeves, quite pretty on her.

    But last they had seen it, it had been covered in the blood of the man who now calmingly wrapped his arms around his wife.

 'Not a word to them about what could have happened to Janus,' Schala muttered in the three youngsters' heads, but it wasn't a necessary order.

    The people from the most distant future hadn't had any plans at all to mention Janus' fall to his niece.

 "How long hast thee been waiting?" Schaliya grimly asked and stood, leaving Glenn's embrace to give her living brother a hug.

 "Not very long," Molor informed and finally lifted his head to a normal level again, "but he should be back soon. As it is now I cannot feel his presence however so I'm not sure."

 "What if he is trapped somewhere?" Cered worriedly asked.

    Molor sighed and shook his head.

 "It won't do you any good to worry. He knows what he's doing."

    He laid his head on his back again.

 "I hope…"

Books is one of the better inventions of man, but when you collect a lot in one place they seem to dry the air. Even if the smell of paper is nice it might become disconcerting. 

    The man who hurried down the hallway of ridiculously tall bookcases had been lightly irritated about how quickly he got thirsty when he'd been searching through the library. That had been then, now was now and it still bothered him. He hadn't felt well when he started off and even though he tried to rush himself he wasn't able to. The dry air clawed at his throat as he stopped to regain his breath, gritting his teeth.

 'Damn you, Lavos…'

    Apart from his breathing everything was silent. The few windows allowed due to the age of some of the scripts gave away that it was getting late.

 'To hell with this.'

    Janus shook his head and straightened up. He knew that the one he sought was close, but he wasn't in the mood for hide and seek.

 'I need your help.'

    At least his sense of telepathy was untouched, and he easily spread the call's reach over the entire building.

    The silence lasted for a second. Then the sound of a book hitting the floor was heard from somewhere ahead, on the other side of the bookcase that Janus was leaning on.

    He gave half a smile.

 'What the hell?' came the suspicious reply.

 'I don't have much time to explain, just get over here,' Janus ordered.

    Another moment brushed by, during which the warlock felt the pull at his mind.

 'Clumsy at that…' he absentmindedly thought.

    But at least it worked. In a flash of light another man showed up in front of Janus, looking at him with slightly wide eyes. It was like looking into a mirror showing your past or future. They wore exactly the same clothes, but Janus carried a much older and more haggard expression. 

    It was quite fair, since he was twice as old as the man facing him. But they didn't have the same history, even if the visitor had been agonizingly aware of his mirror's painful life as a brainwashed slave.

    The Pawn of the Mystics opened his mouth for the obvious question, but Janus cut him off since he understood fully well what it would be.

 "I'm from yet another time stream," the older one quickly explained, "and we don't have much time. I'll explain everything when we've found your student."

    A pair of blue eyebrows twitched.

 "How can you know?" he asked, hesitating whether he'd believe what he saw before him or not.

 "I will explain," Janus grimly said, forcing himself not to let his frustration show, "as for now just trust me. I'll tell you and our saved version everything."

    The Pawn watched the guest for a moment longer before he slowly nodded.

 "Very well," he said, "I'll take us there, you don't look so good."

 "I don't feel so good either," Janus allowed himself. 

    There weren't much use in trying to deny it.

    The younger of the two eyed the older for another second, then he shook his head lightly and turned to his left, away from the bookcases. With a low mutter and a wave of his hand he made a new Gate open, and the two stepped in. 

    None of them had been sure on what to find on the other side of the darkness, but what was there surprised them both thoroughly.

But that side of this story has it's own place and time.

Author's note:

The other story is named "The Janus Saga: A Look on Another One", and I tell his tale just as well as this one. Buut, you probably knew that already.

To Jade Dixon: Great to see you back ^_^

To Lord Cirenmas: Love your recurring comments ;)

To everyone else: Enjoy the show, love ya too ;)


	6. On the other side

Taiga: Hm, I don't really understand what you mean with "Modor is." but I suppose you mean Molor. As for his familyties, I'll leave that open for debate though I think I made it pretty clear in the last chapter. Heh. Ain't I evil?

Chapter 6

Everyone looked up as they heard the familiar, buzzing sound of a Gate opening. The sparkling darkness appeared on Janatzer's right side, and this time it didn't open as slowly as it had done when Janus had left. 

    The warlock had hardly taken one step outside of the portal before he stumbled slightly, despite the grim frown that had adorned his forehead giving a slight smile.

 "I am so relieved to see thee safe, uncle…" Schaliya sighed, hugging him tightly.

 "So am I, little one."

    Janus would never be one to return a hug in a completely natural way, but he did his best when it came to the young woman. It had taken her years to train him for it in the first place.

    But this time he gently pushed her away. 

 "Stand back for now," he quickly explained when facing her questioning look, "they shouldn't see too much of their possible futures."

    As if to follow up on his words something moved in the still open Gate. However, before anything became visible Molor hissed and a grayish bubble appeared around the corpse, Janus and the time portal. 

    No words were heard from within, and nothing was seen from the outside. It felt safe to assume that it was the same for those on the other side of the magic wall as well.

    At least until Janus spoke again.

 "Well then, I need you to make as much a circle as possible around the orb, and be ready to send your powers into it when you see light from within."

    He was silent for a moment.

 "This will probably be more complicated than last time we did something like this, it can take a while. Don't bother with healing magic, just lead your magic at us."

    On the outside, Lashey and Ceredan were the only ones looking clueless about what the words "last time". On the inside, Janus got suspicious glances. But questions remained unsaid for the safety of each story.

    The youngest of the three blue-hairs turned his gaze back at the boy, holding his hand floating over the painfully calm face.

 "It'll take more than a normal resurrection, I fear," he murmured, "his soul is gone from here."

    Straightening up, he eyed his elders – though the one who had been his teacher merely was about a year older than him and maybe didn't deserve such a label.

 "Is that even possible?" he questioned.

 "We'll just have to find out," Janus sternly said.

    The Pawn and Student slowly nodded. Without another word they stood up and took each other's hands, forming a circle. Janus stood behind Janatzer's head, while his companions took their places on each side of the simple bed's head end.

    Even Schala and Molor flinched at the eerie sound of three almost exactly alike voices calling out a spell at the exact same time. It was simply unnatural.  

 "Zoguldra na gol!" came from the bubble, three voices in unison… each one of them belonging to Janus.

    A strange light flared up and illuminated the bubble, giving life to the silhouettes within. There were two with cloaks flapping together with their hair in the magical wind, the last one didn't seem to wear a cloak however. Only his hair twisted behind him. 

 "Now!" one voice called.

    Marle flashed Lashey an encouraging smile, offering support despite the fact that the princess wasn't even half the empress' age. 

    Emperor Sere's wife tried to return the smile, but it didn't go that well. When failing she closed her eyes like everyone else, concentrating all her will towards the bubble as told. 

 "Zoguldra logondo!"

    The light intensified, the humans noticed it even through their eyelids. Molor just watched in silence, not letting it break his focus.

 "Gol tola logondo!"

    Several of the assembled humans gasped when the light flashed so brightly that it painted an ungraspable picture on the backside of every eye lobe, and even the snake recoiled.

    It faded as quickly as it had come, falling back into a pulsating light from within the orb. The glow seemed to come from a few glowing ribbons, connecting the three shadows standing behind the thin wall. Again the shrouding magic was beaten by the power of the Januses, even if all details were left out.

    One of the shadows' head was hanging, and he seemed to more hang than really stand supported by his own force. It was one of the men with cloaks.

    In the silence, glances were exchanged. Schala bit her lower lip, hesitating on whether she should call out or not. After all, she also knew that one should not let the future be known, and she had no idea whether or not the guests had found their versions of her. Under the same criteria was the option to let somebody they didn't yet know speak. Looking around the room the princess of Zeal saw everyone hesitant and questioning, and she took in a deep breath.

    But Glenn saved her the risk.

 "Janus?" Schaliya's husband asked in a bit of a hoarse voice, frowning.

    The second one with a cloak started to move as if to straighten up and reply, but the last of the three's head snapped up in the caller's direction.

 "G…?"

    He cut himself off.

 "He's alright," he said instead, calmingly, "he just had to leave his own body to look for the boy's soul."

 "Don't worry," the other one reassured, "we established an anchor before he left, so he won't get lost."

    When the voices were used individually, the ones who were listening could actually hear small differences in them. Overall they were the same, but not completely. 

    Janus himself had a slightly raspier voice, probably because he was older than the other two. They both did sound younger. The one without a cloak also showed something quite surprising; when he wasn't chanting his way of speaking sounded just like the dialect of Truce. Janus had never been using the slightly rounder I and A's which ruled half of the heroes' pronouncement. 

    The one with the cloak did talk like Janus however, but there was some other difference. His voice was slightly harsh, hardly noticeable though. Not cold like the Prince of Darkness, but… harder somehow, as if he had gone through even worse ordeals than his older mirror.

 "I thank thee for the reassurance," the swordsman said.

    There was a brief pause.

 "You're welcome, Glenn."

    Again it was the cloakless one speaking, with the hint of a bitter smile.

    The tone and the fact that he even spoke out the name got glances flying between the earliest members of the troop.  

 "Ah, I didn't mean to worry you," the visiting Janus said as if he felt the questions hanging in the air, "I'm just not used to hear you talking without that croaking of yours."

    If the apology hadn't surprised everyone too much, they might have chuckled. But not as it was.

    Inside the bubble, the Pawn of the Mystics met his student's eyes.

 "You really did turn out strange, didn't you?" he said, with the hint of a smile.

    The younger man gave a slanted smirk.

 "I guess," he admitted with a low chuckle.

    They both fell silent as they felt a strange pull from the man they were pouring their power into. He wasn't coming back, that wasn't it… it was just a pull, like a reassurance that he was managing.

    At least they could _hope_ that it was a reassurance. It would be impossible to tell any message from a good sign or a call for help. The two men could not dare the risk of trying to drag their mirror back too early either, because then they might not be able to send the soul off again. 

    It was the only hope there was for Janatzer, to wait. 

 "No, no, spirits can't get unconscious. Can't you _hear_ how stupid that sounds, cutie?"

    One couldn't say that Janus twitched by the familiar voice, he still lacked the control to do so… and he was also yet trying to reach the place where he at the same time felt himself being in. It stretched the term "over worldly" a bit…

 "Then what is he?" a dry voice sarcastically retorted, "doesn't look awake to me."

 'Bloody hell…'

 "And spirits don't sleep either, you know."

 "Shut your damn rathole, Flea."

 "Why do we have to meet him anyway?" a third voice grunted.

 "Why don't you go ask Azran or maybe even Snake if you've got something to complain about?"

    The last voice was familiar as well, and this one was at least welcome. It eased Janus' strong worry that he had ended up in the utterly wrong area. Still, it was slightly confusing to hear those four talking in the same place.

    There was a contemplating silence. But it wasn't very long.

 "Fine, whatever…"

    Lizard smirked lightly and stretched, turning to Ozzie as the descendant nervously moved further away from the one they were waiting for.

 "I just don't feel good about this," the much fatter monster grunted.

 "What, afraid he'll kill you or something?"

    The younger monster glared.

 "You know, I've said it before…"

 "About three hundred and fifty eight times, yes."

 "… The tales never ever mentioned you being such a wisecrack."

 "Wit, courage and despair aren't all the things that make a leader," Lizard snickered.

 "Yeah, and too bad you never had any of that."

    The first Mystic king glared at a convenient cliff in the glistening, golden landscape. For some reason his magic expert of a friend had always liked high places.

 "Well fine, you did have the desperation," Magician smirked down at his boss, "wit was mine and courage was… I guess I'll have to hand that to Warrior."

    He sighed the last part. Very deeply, too.

    Flea was about to snicker at his ancestor's lack of respect, but something came in between.

 "Erk!"

 "Eh, Lizard?" Ozzie nervously said.

 "Hmm?" 

    The oldest Mystic glanced over his shoulder. And chuckled.

 "'e's aw'k!" Slash choked, grimacing and trying to free himself.

 "I 'a'd 'irit do't 'eep!" Flea growled, struggling as well.

 "I don't know what I expected," Janus firmly said, "but _you_ were not included."

    Lizard fought back a laugh at seeing the two monsters fight against the hands that held a throat each. At least they didn't have to worry about being strangled…

 "No need to be hostile, Janus, they're not your enemies here," he assured.

    The warlock looked at the slim, green monster and at the surroundings. Then he sighed and let go. 

    Instead of hitting the ground, Flea and Slash fell only a couple of inches before they floated off while rubbing their necks. 

 "You've got to be kidding," Janus growled with a heated glare at the three younger Mystics.

 "Actually not," Magician chuckles as he leaped off his cliff, "you made it to what living people call Heaven."

 "And why are _they_ here then?" the warlock snapped.

    (Author's note:

    Remember, Janus never did experience that his old enemies fought to save his soul from Lavos.)

 "Have to break your bubble there," Lizard smiled, "terms like Hell, devils and demons are something that priests made up to scare people into belief."

 "More than half the world's curses are, ergo, completely useless," Magician merrily smirked. 

 "In other words, everyone ends up here sooner or later."

    The owner of the last voice winced slightly as he found himself under a burning glare from the red eyes.

 "It ah… just takes a little longer for some of us," he added, diplomatically. 

    Janus didn't reply, his eyes scowled "I dearly hope so" well enough to cause blindness. 

    Dalton choose to back off.

 "Look, it's not like we wanted to come here and meet you," Slash grunted, still massaging his neck sourly, "Azran just has a twisted sense of humor."

 "Who is Azran?" Janus asked, looking at Lizard.

 "An angel if you so wish," the Mystic said and waved at the warlock to follow him as he started moving towards Magician's cliff, "the guardian of your bloodline. And we have to do as he says, even if _some of us_ requires to be dragged along kicking and screaming."

 "I could have lived without it as well," the visitor grunted, sending another heated frown at his old generals.

 "Don't give us that look, we could have been down there right now risking our lives for you against Lavos," Ozzie stated, fiddling with his robes.

 "Afterlives, cutie," Flea absentmindedly corrected.

    Janus pretended not to have heard them. It was not an option that fitted into his mind.

    Not enough that his old enemies were there in the first place, death hadn't changed them one bit it seemed. Not even the clothes. Slash even had his beloved sword by his side, though whatever he planned to battle in Heaven was a question that was left unanswered. 

    Janus choose to ignore them completely and followed Lizard and Magician past the cliff through the strange landscape. 

    There were no trees, no grass, just a few hills and strange protruding shapes in the glimmering world. The ground itself looked to be made of gold and the sky peacefully flowed in all the colors of the rainbow. 

    It took the warlock a few moments to realize that he wasn't even walking, but floating. And so was everyone else. Almost as it had been waiting for that simple conclusion the peculiar world seemed to change, melting into more familiar forms. And at the same time nothing really moved. 

    Well, not familiar as in homey, but there were at least things that seemed more natural in a landscape. What had been mind boggling shapes changed into bushes, stones and trees, and even if no colors changed at least it was a relief. Even if he wouldn't admit it, Janus hadn't felt that well about passing over on the other side even when he had reached his goal, at least now things appeared to be working on making things easier for him.

    Or at least, some things did. Others were doing the opposite.

 "Hell no! We went over this already!"

 "Yes, and we reached a conclusion!"

 "Did not! That's not fair!"

    The argument went on in the same way for several more seconds until Janus stopped and turned around, folding his arms. The discussion died instantly.

 "_What_?" the warlock growled from the deepest depths of his throat.

    The four spirits that had followed the leading three – on a fairly safe distance – exchanged glances.

    As one person Ozzie and Slash shoved Dalton and Flea forwards so forcefully that they almost fell over. 

 "No fair!" the cross body whined.

 "Shut up and spit it out already!" Ozzie snarled.

    Dalton glared at the monsters and then turned to his son again. Upon closer inspection it was revealed that there actually were small changes in appearance. For one, the dark-blond man from Zeal now had both his eyes working just fine.

    With a grunt he rubbed his temples, finally looking up again as Janus' foot began to tap against the ground, floating or no.

 "Oh fine," the father reluctantly said, "I didn't want to say anything but Levana said she'd make us a private hell if we didn't ah… make Flea say it."

    He slammed his hand into the pink Mystic's back, who in turn squealed in protest as he stumbled further ahead.

 "I haven't got time for anyone of you," Janus impatiently growled and grabbed Flea's crag to lift him to the same eyelevel, "what bloody is it?"

    The cute face twisted into a grimace, but the magician spoke up at least.

 "Well Janus, _we_…"

    At that point Flea glared aside but couldn't fix his eyes on the subjects of his rage since he couldn't move very well.

 "… Just wanted to… argh…"

    He pinched his eyes shut and clenched his hands into shaking fists.

 "… Saywe'resorrynowpleaseputmedown."

    It surprised Janus quite a bit, to say the least. Despite their strange behavior, he had not expected anyone of the four generals to swallow their pride enough to actually redeem themselves to him.

    And had Lavos not forced him to plead for mercy hardly an hour earlier, perhaps the warlock would have forced each one of them to say the same as Flea. But as that episode still remained as a bitter taste in his mouth, he simply let the magician go.

    The Mystic even blinked, obviously expecting worse than that.

 "Maybe," the warlock grunted and turned again.

 "There, wasn't so hard, was it?" Magician cheekily smirked at his descendant, the other two Mystics and Dalton.

    Lizard and Janus ignored the lot, moving onwards.

    The softly glowing landscape began to change color, into more natural ones. Still, each and every shade was gentler and more beautiful than anything down on the mortal coil ever could be.

 "Janatzer is just fine," the Mystic assured as Janus came up beside him, "spent some time with his grandparents while we were waiting for you to get the help."

 "I see."

    Janus threw a glance behind himself and his guide. Yes, they were still following. Of course.

    He sighed.

 "I take it _that_ works in the same way as with how you and your companions could show up during the episode with Charash?" he said, not too enthusiastically.

 "Yes. Time hasn't got the same meaning here."

    Lizard gave a slanted smile, which in no way reminded of the smirks of his descendant.

 "I know you're mad at them," the Mystic said, "but really, there's no evil left when you get here. Might have taken Flea a while to spurt it out but he meant it for them all."

 "I'm feeling rather angry," the warlock pointed out.

    The Mystic nodded with another smile.

 "Yes, but you're not completely dead on the other hand. And anger is not the same as evil, after all. There's no blocks against true emotions, we're not having a tyranny here."

 "Why would there be reason to b angry in Heaven, anyway?"

    Lizard silently pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, at the four generals and Magician.

    Then he chuckled and shook his head.

 "No, in truth…" he grinned, "just being happy gets damn boring after a while, even here. And if we couldn't feel anger and worry we'd hardly be able to do a good job watching over the living, right?"

 "Point."

    More and more trees appeared, seemingly being formed to follow every movement that the two travelers made.

    Whispering softly as it flowed along on the path it had created for itself, a silvery river suddenly blocked the course. However Lizard just turned and began moving up the flow, all the while floating so that the soft moss and small twigs on the ground just softly brushed against his bare feet. Janus could just follow him.

    The river soon turned into water instead of silver, as if complying to the laws of nature when it was closer to its spring. 

    Then suddenly the trees gave away for a clearing, and a pond adorned with low cliffs on the far off side. A typical story book thing, complete with the water lilies. At least there wasn't sickeningly many flowers on the ground, and no sandy slope leading down into the water.

    Still, had the rest of the scenery not caught Janus' full attention he might have asked Lizard if he was trying to make his guest sick to the stomach.

 "Uncle!"

    Janatzer bolted to his feet with a wide smile, dashing to meet his mother's brother. At least he was out of the uniform he had died in, back into his everyday brown pants and open shirt instead of the white-gray clothing of the Garadian soldiers.

    Levana Zeal stood, a bit surprised but warmly watching her son allow the boy to hug him tightly, even smiling as well with great relief. The youngster was almost as tall as his uncle, it turned out.

 "I'm glad to see you safe, Janus," she said as the three spirits came closer to her and the man who had been sitting beside her on a smooth rock.

 "It wasn't me I was worried about," the warlock pointed out, safely keeping a hand on his nephew's shoulder. 

 "I am all well, uncle," Janatzer said, still smiling in the same way, "though I was dearly hoping that thee would be able to bring me back, for I can feel everyone's sorrow."

 "Well, getting here and find you is the start at least," Janus said, his smile wavering a bit as reality caught up again.

    Levana shook her head, her warm expression not changing.

 "There's no need to worry about protests from anywhere," she assured, "Azran was quite shocked too when Janatzer died. Mistakes can occur."

 "I'd say they happen more often when there's a certain parasite in the works," the man on the rock grimly said, leaning his chin on a fist.

    He was dressed in a quite familiar set of heavy, purple robes, and teal-green hair flowed down his back in a tidy ponytail held up by a blue ribbon. Even if his thin frame made it apparent that he was no warrior, he moved with regal pride and still gracefully as he stood. 

    Most striking in his face was the pure yellow irises of his eyes – a typical sign of somebody starting to use a lot of magic at a young age – and any "normal" human would probably take a great notice of his pointy ears, as well. The warlock however rather scanned the familiar shape of his nose and cheekbone. 

 "I assume you are lord Amon then," Janus said, far from roughly.

    After all he had no reason at all to be rude and his mood was just brightening by the way the situation had turned out.

    The older man smiled and nodded.

 "Indeed, I am the father of your sister," the last king of Zeal admitted.  

 "Are you saying that Lavos was working behind the scenes again, then?" Janus asked with a frown, turning the discussion around again.

    The married couple exchanged glances before answering. 

 "We're not sure, but it's possible," Levana nodded, her gem eyes turning cold as she spoke, "he could not have reached very far away from your mind, but it's safe to assume that he was doing something to push his scheme into action."

 "Lovely."

    Janus pursed his mouth.

 "Well, in any case Molor was sure that he had managed to kill the parasite completely this time," he said.

 "That also seems correct," the queen said, her grim expression melting away at once, "we'll stay on lookout for anything, but I think we can relax a little."

 "About time."

 "Ah…"

    Lord Amon smiled a bit and turned to the stone, reaching for something behind it.

 "Speaking of your snake, here's another friend of yours."

    In a swift movement he handed the small creature to Levana, who carefully took the slender body and stepped closer to her son. Janus' hands left Janatzer's shoulders and then swung lightly at the added weight.

    There was a purr.

 "One smirk and you'll wish you _could_ die again," the warlock calmly said without looking around.

 "Who, us?" Flea's voice innocently said.

    The warlock rolled his eyes. Obviously fear was not a binding force in this world, sadly enough. 

 "Mother did mention thy cat once, uncle," Janatzer commented with a careful smile.

 "Ah well…"

    Alfador rubbed his head against the chest covered in hard leather, purring even louder as a set of fingertips stroke his fur.

 "Molor fills a void, but he does lack a few things that the urchin here has."

    As if the words weren't enough of a shock, Janus chuckled lightly.

 "And even if he _had_ ears, I'm sure even I would loose a few fingers trying to scratch him behind them." 

    Whether it was instinct of self-preservation or The Glare that Levana gave those who could consider putting their health at risk, nobody said a teasing word. She exchanged the harsh look for a smile again as she looked at the main attraction again.

 "In any case, you two," she said, "we're waiting for Azran to get back here. You can of course return to your body with the anchor you and your colleagues created, Janus, but Janatzer will need some help. The guardian just needed to take care of a few things first, he said."

    She held up her hand at Janus' growing frown.

 "Don't worry, merely a few seconds will pass in the world of living."

 "And how much time, relatively spoken that is, would that be here?" Janatzer asked even before his uncle could ask the same thing. 

    Amon shrugged.

 "Hard to say, but can't be more than what could be regarded as an hour," he said. 

    There was a protesting grunt and Lizard broke the family circle, dragging Ozzie and Dalton along. Half strangled chuckles from Slash and giggles from Flea could be heard in the background. 

 "Enough time to get a few things straight, I think," the first king of Mystics said with a slight smirk.

    Janus glance upwards at the grimacing faces, then shook his head and turned away. 

 "Not in the least interested," he coldly stated.

 "Me neither!" Dalton croaked. 

    He grunted again as his level changed suddenly, to find himself glaring into the oldest Mystic's eyes.

    The silent battle kept up for a moment, until Lizard chose to take the shortcut.

 "Snake," he said, emotionlessly.

    The suppressed chuckles got Janus' attention, making him luckily turn around. 

    Seeing the look of utter horror on his father's face would have made _anything_ worthwhile.

 "Alright, alright, alright!" the once one-eyed man hurriedly agreed and heavily sighed as he was set free again.

 "And what about you three?" Lizard asked in a dangerously soft tone, glancing between the evil trio of the middle ages.

 "The tales never mentioned you being so cruel either!" Ozzie growled, but was allowed to return to the freely floating.

 "I never knew Snake was such a threat," Janus commented with a vague smirk.

 "Oh, you have _no_ idea until you see her," Magician shuddered. 

    He backed off with a chuckle under the glare of his leader.

 "Well Janus, you know Skeeza*?" Ozzie grunted, rubbing his neck.

    Janatzer blinked as he watched his uncle close his ruby eyes and very slowly lift his free hand to his face, rubbing his forehead as if he had a burning headache.

 "All too well," the warlock finally allowed, growling slightly.

 "Who be Skeeza?" the youngster of the group wondered.

 "Well you see kid," Magician cut in before anyone else had time to answer, "it seems like there's something wrong with Lizard's bloodline. They all marry psychopaths."

 "Keep your damn mouth shut!" Lizard and Ozzie growled as one.

 "Wh_a_t? It's true!" Flea smirked, leaping in behind Slash for protection. 

    The two green-skinned Mystics snarled at the magic users, then left them alone.

 "_What I was trying to say_," Ozzie continued with quite a hint of annoyance left in his voice, "is that Skeeza and Snake are pretty alike, at least in temper. Snake is thinner and quicker however."

 "As if we didn't have enough problems with _your_ wife," the warlock grunted.

    He paused for a second and then sighed deeply.

 "Damn."

 "No use fighting," Levana commented with a bit of a tired smile, "Lizard always gets people where he wants them. Even to friendly terms, as you see."

 "Why blame everything on me?" the first Mystic king defended himself.

    The collective look he received spoke much, much louder than words. He raised his hands in defeat.

 "Oh fine then, blame me."

 "We would anyway," Dalton sincerely commented. 

    Sighing a bit Janus sat down on the rock, letting Alfador land in his lap. The cat's tail twitched happily and he kept purring softly as a forgotten hand returned to scratching his ears.

 "Seeing that we're not going anywhere until this Azran returns and you obviously won't leave me alone," he grunted, at the last bit giving Lizard another glare, "might as well play along."

    His mother chuckled softly and took a seat beside him. Janatzer sunk down in the grass while lord Amon returned to sitting beside his wife.

 "Well, we don't know everything but we have time to research the world we're watching over," queen Zeal told her son, "since it should be a while until we can talk again, is there anything you'd like to have cleared up, while we're at it?"

*You'll make her acquaintance in A Look on Another One… and it ain't gonna be pretty!

Author's note:

Erk, it took me ages to find an end of this chapter :P Anyway… I'm dedicating the next chapter to a few explanations, such as how Schala could invoke the new magical element Light all of a sudden. Is there anything else you think needs explanation about the Janus Saga series (Magus' quest, Another life, The Prince's story)? Then you can mail me your questions and I'll do my best to make the dead people sort things out. Questions about A Look on Another one are accepted, but they'll probably be harder to fit in here. I will however have a similar chapter in A Look for those, if needed. 


	7. Dalton explains it all, well, a lot

Chapter 7, Answers

Ever since his childhood Janus had been very apprehensive about facing any kind of information while his Mystic teachers were around, but as they kept respectful distance it didn't bother him much.

    And when it came down to it, there were a few questions he often had pondered without finding a decent answer. Might as well take the chance now, even if he'd have a lot of time for it later too.

    The last thought was surprisingly free of anguish. Death wasn't so bad when you had seen the other side, after all. 

 "Since you didn't know anything about it back then, I suppose you don't have any idea about the dreams I had about the other life?" the warlock said after a moments pondering of where to start.

    He kept looking at his mother and Lizard, nobody else.

    They shook their heads.

 "Same theory as earlier," Magician said and shrugged, "your mind might have hooked onto a parallel time stream when you went Gate leaping in the search for Schala, it's the only sensible idea so far. Azran doesn't know either, funny that."

    Janus glanced at the ancient monster and raised an eyebrow.

 "Do I want to know who that 'somebody who isn't here' is, who presented that theory in the first place?" he said, slowly.

 "That would be me."

    Dalton looking sheepish was a disturbing sight.

 "What interest hast thee for my uncle?" Janatzer coldly questioned in suspicious defending. 

    The older one glared back, his hesitant look being washed in the tides of irritation.

 "Well youngster, you know that he is my…"

 "Allow not the words to foul the holy air," the boy cut off.

    Dalton scowled, then frowned even deeper as he noticed the twitching lips of the spectators.

 "By the powers, he's worse than you ever were," the general snorted.

 "How would you know, you kept your distance as far as I recall," Janus said with a much colder sparkle in his eyes, "thankfully."

 "Watch it, we might agree on something."

 "If you have something important to say then speak up or leave."

    The two men glared their challenge. 

    Of all people, Flea stepped in between. Without considering the risk of turning to charcoal.

 "Okay you two, time out, cease fire, love, peace, understanding and all that crap that makes me feel sick."

 "Well isn't that just _darn_…" Magician commented, resting his cheeks in his hands. And his elbows on Lizard's head until slapped off.

 "Get out of my face before I remodel yours, you pink moron," Dalton stated.

 "Oh I love you too, cutie," the younger magician smirked and swatted at the thick curls as he pranced aside again. 

    Janus glanced at Lizard.

 "Are you _sure_ this isn't hell?" he dryly asked, making the Mystic chuckle slightly.

 "Aww, come on!"

    Flea pirouetted around and tilted his head sweetly.

 "We're not _that_ bad anymore!" he stated.

 "I guess we all _do_ have to pay for our sins, one way or another," Slash grunted and leaned against a tree with his arms sourly folded.  

 "I actually find you worse now," Janus emotionlessly told the female-looking one, getting the responding pout everybody had been expecting. 

 "Why I never…"

 "Never?" Ozzie cut off, smirking slightly. 

 "Ohhh!" Flea fumed and turned his back at as many as possible, "I'll get back on you somehow!"

 "Don't worry about that, you already are," Dalton growled, "with every damn word leaving your mouth."

    The Mystic spun around with a hiss and bent his fingers like claws, but Slash grabbed his crag and pulled him backwards.

 "No catfights now, ladies," the swordsman stated.

    His normally grim face cracked up in a smirk a second later as Dalton finally caught the insult and snarled profanities under his breath. Flea was too gleeful at that reaction to claw his companion's eyes out.

 "Now, _I_ actually have another theory, if you'd give me a chance to talk," Slash stated and easily flung Flea over his shoulder.

    Silence ruled for a second – save the magicians grumbles – until Janus reluctantly nodded.

 "Fine," he said.

 "Will make it brief," Slash said and crossed his arms as usual, "we have perfect contact with the guarding powers in this dimension, but it's not as simple to reach into parallel time streams. Now, I expect of you to at least once have wondered what happened to the boy Janus that _you_ saw when you pretended to be the Prophet in Zeal."

    Janus pursed his mouth. It was answer enough. The swordsman nodded and spoke up again. 

 "Indeed, for since he could not have the same memories as you did, he can't have been you. The time loop is incorrect, your memory did not change with the events you led in Zeal."

 "True," the warlock slowly said.

 "But, that boy was not the slave you dreamt about either," Slash said, "I didn't look at what you experienced but your mother tells me that the slave didn't remember any Prophet."

    Thinking back – though not too fond of bringing back the memories – Janus had to agree once more.

 "Hold up," Janatzer protested, "sayeth thee that there was no Prophet in my uncle's memories from his childhood? But…"

 "There _was_ a Prophet, yes," Janus slowly said and shook his head, "but _I_ hardly noticed him and he disappeared quickly. Schala must have seen him well though, otherwise she wouldn't have recognized me as him in Dalton's fortress."

    All of a sudden the once one-eyed man found a tree very fascinating. 

 "I am becoming confused," the youngster of the group said, almost as an apology.

 "Yes, it's a bit confusing, I'll try to make it simpler," Slash said with a shrug.

    He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and started to draw a straight, imaginary line in the air. The thing was, as he finished it the line really appeared as a purple thread.

 "We'll try like this. This is a time line, alright?" 

    The swordsman awaited a nod from the boy before he continued.

 "Now, the time travel caused a bit of trouble for the guardians, since nothing can exist in the past, present and future at the same time. But somehow it worked out since Janus and the others kept moving around, never staying in one place long enough to cause a crack. However, there was one thing that was too big for the time stream to handle. That was Janus meeting himself as a child. The only way that the time stream could survive that…"

    Slash drew another line, growing out from the last so that the ending result looked like a forked road.

 "… was to split, renew itself. Which means that when you go back in time to Zeal, you will never come to your own version of it, but the parallel one. That is because you met yourself."

    He was looking at Janus for the last part of the rant.

 "I think I follow," the warlock said, "Schala's and my memories are the same, but the Schala I saw back in Zeal experienced different things, just like the boy did."

 "Exactly," Slash nodded.

 "But where do my dreams tie in?"

    Almost seeming idly, Slash drew a fork in the youngest line. Then another fork in the fresh one. And so on, until he had made about ten of them. By then he had floated almost a foot upwards to be able to reach.

 "Was our time stream the original one?" he finally said, "I doubt it, since you saw a Prophet too. Here's the deal, that man did not try to save you from the Mystics, and neither did you when you took his place."

    Janus frowned and nodded.

 "We know that the boy you saw wasn't the slave, so _he_ must have been further ahead or earlier down the line."

    Slash motioned at his drawing.

 "My guess is that he showed up some time after you, however, because he made a difference. Those before him seems to have done the same mistake, but he dived for the boy instead of trying to kill Lavos."

    He shrugged as he kept talking.

 "Perhaps there is a guardian who has seen many time streams and was trying to make a break for it. Why did the slave try to save the boy when nobody else did? Why didn't you, Janus?"

    The warlock pursed his mouth and shook his head again.

 "I thought that he needed the strength, whether I liked it or not," he admitted, hands clenching above Alfador's resting form.

 "Exactly," Slash said with the hint of a dry smile, "but the slave knew nothing but pain and didn't think it was worth it, so he tried to crash the cycle. However, when you look at him, does he truly appear as strong enough to break free?"

 "Once he managed to get rid of the brainwash, he appeared a bit stronger than I was," Janus protested.

 "Yes, but that's it. Seeing Schala's pendant broke him out of the mist, but it's not that simple to clear out a brainwashed mind. Without a stronger mind inside his own which was fighting to make him remember, he probably would have died in the battle that saved him."

    Slash held up a hand to silence the warlock as he was about to speak again.

 "I know you felt that you were him all the time, but for you to see something through someone else's eyes, your presence _is_ required, correct? You couldn't change anything knowingly, but your soul being there strengthened his. I believe a guardian might have brought you in since you have a very strong mind, enough to rub off on someone else. And apart from that…"

    He smiled faintly and motioned at Janatzer.

 "There would be another time when you needed to know about the slave and his student."

    Janus looked down at his nephew and gave a dry chuckle.

 "By the powers, I'm listening and agreeing on what you say, Slash. This will take a while to get over."

 "And you could have brought it up with me, you knew I was trying to figure it out," Dalton growled.

 "I thought you were _intelligent_ enough to think of it yourself," Slash snorted and resumed leaning against a tree.

 "Why you…" 

 "Anything else?" lord Amon asked with a sigh, rolling his eyes at the combatants.

    Janus acted like it was raining and looked at Alfador's furry head. A frown touched the pale forehead.

 "Uncle?" Janatzer immediately said, worried.

    He earned the shadow of a smile.

 "Quite protective of me today, aren't you?" Janus commented.

    The boy gravely nodded.

 "Of course uncle," he grimly said, "'twas my fault that Lavos caused thee such harm."

    The warlock bent forwards, wary of the cat in his lap, and put his hand on Janatzer's shoulder. 

 "It was _not_ your fault," Janus almost growled, "hadn't it happened then he would have found another way."

 "But…"

 "He's right," Levana nodded with sadness sparkling in her eyes, "Lavos is not a creature who gives up easily. You were just following orders, how could you have rebelled against that?"

    She quickly placed her hand on Janus' shoulder in turn as he straightened up.

 "And that goes for you too," she sharply said, "you could never have served that bastard of an emperor."

    Janus clenched his teeth.

 "Ah yes, him," he muttered with a slight hiss, "I'm working on what to do with that man when I get back."

 "Oh boy, and we've got a first row ticket!" Flea grinned, showing off all of his sharp teeth, "who'll get the snacks?"

 "Not you in any case," Levana sternly said, "those blue things left a bad taste in my mouth for days."

    She looked up as she noticed her son's gaze.

 "What?" she asked.

    Janus' red eyes shot over to Slash and Ozzie. The first one was hiding his lips behind his hand with a horrified glistening in his eyes, the other coughed uneasily.

    Flea tried to look innocent under the judge's glare.

    Closing his eyes Janus made an imitation of Slash's position.

 "What?" Amon asked, slightly worried.

    The human hand fell and Janus opened his mouth, but closed it again. Finally he shook his head.

 "You _don't_ want to know."

 "It's an acquired taste!" Flea smirked.

    The ruby glare almost petrified him. Literally.

 "You used to give them to me as _punishment_!" Janus growled.

 "Less screaming involved in that reprimand, allowed the rest of us to sl_eek_!" 

    A gracefully executed throw sent the pink-skinned sadist flying into the pond. Dalton, Slash, Ozzie and Magician backed off from the blur that had made Flea shut up, all four of them coughing apologizingly as she rubbed imaginary dust off her hands.

 "Sorry about that, lord Janus," the female Mystic said, with her stare keeping the magician in the water for a while longer, "he's a _damn_ slow learner."

 "Beat me to it as usual, dear," Lizard said, diplomatically smiling.

    Janus raised an eyebrow.

 "I think I see what you meant about her, Ozzie," he commented.

    Snake looked around, smiling slightly.

 "Oh, Ozzie was talking about me while I'm off somewhere else again, was he?" she sweetly said.

    Before the fat Mystic had time to duck, the lady had moved.

 "You did that on purpooose!" he screeched before the water enveloped him.

    Ozzie's crash gave most of the group a shower, but the liquid quickly disappeared again.

 "To intentionally do something like that is below my dignity," Janus calmly stated, but the left corner of his lips was twitching. 

 "Whatever," Snake said with a chuckle and leaned against an unoccupied tree, "now I can assure you things will go a little more smoothly, so carry on what you were doing before they went astray."

 "Ah yes."

    Janus nodded, turning grim again.

 "I was wondering about Molor, what will happen to his soul when he dies?"

    Before anyone had time to say anything, he told the thin air:

 "And the first one pointing and saying something along the lines of 'Does the fact that Charash is behind you answer your question' will bleed, I swear."

    When the hand is wet, snapping fingers isn't easy even if you oh so dearly want to mock disappointment.

 "Well darn!" Flea sighed and chuckled teasingly.

 "Charash isn't here," Levana softly said, "but that's only because he isn't dead yet. There's nothing to worry about, Janus."

 "I'm relieved to hear that," the warlock spoke with a little more than a faint smile. 

    Meanwhile Flea had reached the brim of the pond.

 "Can I get out of here now, lady Snake?" he whined.

    She looked at him for a moment.

 "No."

 "Figures."

    Sighing, the magician swam backwards again. 

 "I have a query," Janatzer spoke up.

 "Do tell," his grandfather kindly said.

 "I have been told that mother invoke the power of Light, but none had an explanation to how she could do so," the boy said, glancing at his uncle as if hoping for approval. 

    The youngster smiled with relief like a complimented student to his teacher, when the warlock nodded. The respect Janatzer felt for his namesake after was very apparent right then.  

 "Good, I almost forgot about that," Janus admitted.

 "Err…"

    Dalton stepped forward again, glancing nervously at Snake. She left it by a warning glare, thus he dared to speak up.

 "I can explain that…" 

    He glared at Slash.

 "… Unless someone else has better ideas?"

 "Not in this case," the swordsman casually said.

 "Make it brief," Janus emotionlessly demanded. 

    Dalton rolled his eyes but nodded.

 "Fine. Here goes, but don't attack me if you don't like some of the things I say."

 "I'll be the judge of that," the warlock stated.

 "As usual. Anyway…"

    He held up four fingers.

 "As we all know there are four elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, that's an old party line. But only two of these nature forces are directly used in magic, and those are the last two. Wind might be included since that's the same as Air, which leads us to Thunder. I believe magic was born from familiarity, all these things are vital for living creatures to survive. But why is Earth excluded then? I believe your companion Ayla is in fact Earth based, but the powers she has are too primitive to be called magic."

    Before he continued to speak he raised his hands to the level of his chest with the palms turned outwards, ready to shield himself.

 "So we have these elements naturally. Shadow is not natural, since that is, plainly, evil power and not just lack of light. Lavos brought that power to our world."

    Janus clenched his teeth, and so did Janatazer as he came to the sad conclusion. The others didn't change much, obviously already aware of the story.

    But the warlock allowed Dalton to go on, without saying a word. In truth, he wasn't one to kill the messenger even if it was very tempting sometimes.

 "Then we have Light. That came from the dreamstone."

 "Dreamstone?" Janus said in disbelief, "how does that fit into your 'natural' theory?"

    Dalton nodded, without annoyance.

 "That's the thing," he said, "the reason Schala could invoke Light was because it was natural to _her_; her pendant was made of dreamstone. It's the only true magic material in this world, powered on its own. How that can be is another thing, it might be natural to it. I don't know."

 "What about the Masamune and my amulet?" the warlock questioned.

 "You and Frog already had specified magical elements, Shadow and Water. Melchior is also Water, even if he can use other types of magic as well. Therefore it couldn't touch any of you no matter how long you were in contact with the accessories. However, Schala never did have a specified element, even if she mastered a lot of spells. It might have been since she was given the pendant very early, and it opened up her ability to invoke Light."

    Slowly Janus nodded.

 "Fair enough," he admitted.

 "See, that's the reason the Masamune can break through your defenses," Dalton added, "Light and Shadow don't mix well."

    Janus thought he saw the man flinch slightly as he spoke, but didn't have time to consider what that was about due to the interruption. A voice that mostly resembled to softly ringing bells cut through everything and caused the strange collection of people to look upwards.

 "I'm sorry that you had to wait, everything is cleared up now."

    From the strange heavens a figure emerged. It appeared to be male, but with all the constantly swirling, golden robes and the indistinct voice it was hard to tell. The face didn't help much either, as it seemed like the facial looks of the creature were changing all the time. But there was nothing threatening about him, only a warm feeling of security. Those who had been sitting stood up whether they noticed doing so or not, and Ozzie and Flea finally were allowed to climb ashore.

 "Took you long enough," Snake commented, in a soft voice however.

 "You wouldn't believe the rips that Lavos created in the time line," Azran sighed and shook his head.

    As he landed he turned out being at least two heads taller than even Lizard. 

    For being an "angel", he suffered a distinct lack of wings. But the power seeping from his being clouded any so called misconception. 

    He turned to the visitor and his nephew, smiling warmly somewhere among all the changes of his face.

 "When you get back, give that dragon of yours a compliment from above," the guardian mildly said, "not everyone would come out victorious from such a battle."

    He left it be unsaid how close it had been to a failure.

 "So there is no problem with bringing Janatzer back to life?" Janus asked, careful as this being with his entire existence softly asked for respect.

    The angel shook his head.

 "Not anymore, and had there been more problems I would have cleared those up too," he assured, "the boy's death was not meant to be."

 "Thank you, lord," Janatzer gratefully said. 

 "No need for that," Azran kindly smiled, "now we'll just have to make sure that you have a long and fine life. You'll have to say good bye now."

    The boy looked around and smiled, getting the same in return from the rest of the group.

 "It was just fun, kid," Magician assured with a chuckle.

    Levana bent forwards and lightly kissed her grandson's cheek.

 "Tell your mother hello from me, will you?" the dead queen said with a smile and with a controlled voice.

 "I will, grandmother."

    Azran held out his hand and Janatzer respectfully took it. They both vanished in a bright flash of light, strangely enough not strong enough to hurt the eyes though.

    Janus reached for the anchor within himself, putting Alfador on the ground as he did so.

 "Next time I come here," he firmly said with twitching lips, "pick another welcome committee, will you?"

 "We'll keep that in mind," Amon chuckled and waved slightly.

 "Take care, Janus," queen Zeal softly said.

    The warlock allowed her, her husband, Lizard and Alfador a smile before he disappeared in a flash very similar to the one that just had brought two others away.

    Sighing slightly Levana sat down on the rock again, the cat of the crew leaping into her lap at the first opportunity.

 "It's not the same just watching over him…" she murmured, mostly to herself. 

    Amon gently hung an arm around her shoulder.

 "I know, but…"

 "It's hella more peaceful around here without him," Ozzie grumbled.

    Lizard just "happened" to elbow his descendant back into the pond. It was with such a forceful accident that the younger king was near the middle of the small lake when he resurfaced. 

 "Nice one," Snake complimented, laughing softly while Ozzie swam back, muttering under his breath.

    Lizard performed an exaggerated bow, one which he was already notorious for since way back.

 "An honor to serve a worthy queen, milady," he snickered.

 "I swear, if I didn't have to respect those two…" Magician sighed with a teasing smirk.

    A second later he took a refreshing swim as well. 

 "Are you going to throw _everyone_ into the water?" Dalton dryly asked, unwisely.

    The married monsters smiled at him, their fangs showing all too well.

 "Yes," they kindly informed.

    Levana absentmindedly held up her hand to shield Alfador from the next shower. She could have sworn the small creature was laughing.

 "Who's next?" Snake sniggered, glancing at Slash who was examining the nearest tree.

 "Dad!" a female voice shouted.

 "We already threw him in, Dreamer," Lizard chuckled, turning to the pink-skinned Mystic who came dashing between the trees. 

    She skidded to a halt, willing the thick book she carried under her arm to stay in place. It had silver edges and the pages glowed softly, the name inscribed on the front unreadable due to the Mystic's arm. The souls could however take a clever guess since they knew this lady.

 "What is it now?" Magician blurted as he worked his way onto the grass again.

 "Where's Azran?" Dreamer demanded.

    Meanwhile Flea had slid up beside her, smirking slightly.

 "Will you stop that?" Amon sighed, knowing he served the dead general exactly what he wanted, "it's creepy."

 "What?" Dreamer said, disoriented.

    As she looked aside Flea turned his head at her as well, creating a feeling that one of them was looking at a mirror. There were only two things that made any major difference; the fact that Dreamer wore her head in a pony-tail and carried glasses. Otherwise they were almost perfectly alike.

    Chuckling slightly as he had finished the joke Flea backed off. Until Snake grabbed his crag and sent him bathing. 

 "Jokes aside!" Dreamer shouted and held up the book, "we have a problem."

     Levana stood and hurried up to the Mystic. Her fingertips worriedly ran over the golden letters of the book's cover, shimmering ribbons forming three words. The cover was mostly dark, but there were several lighter areas in the complicated pattern which adorned it. One could see pictures of scythes and dragon wings among many other things in the design.

    The letters read "Janus of Zeal".

 "What is wrong?" the mother demanded.

    Dreamer bit her lower lip and shook her head.

 "It's not working out," she stated. 

    The book floated out of her hands and opened around the middle. The left page which showed was halfway filled with text, the rest was blank. Dreamer reached out and touched the empty area below the letters. As she did so, a simple hourglass flashed into her grip. It was about one foot in length and the sand within fell at one piece at the time in a slow, steady pace.

    As Dreamer held the artifact up for inspection Levana counted hardly fifteen grains of sand left.

 "_What_?!"


	8. No strings attached

Chapter 8, Prayer of a dragon

 _"What do you mean 'he's gonna die'?" Flea demanded, he and  the other spirits dashing to Levana and Dreamer's side._

The Pawn and Wizard tensed as they felt a pull, stronger this time. The body of Janus didn't move, but a fleeting, transparent image of him suddenly moved out of the warlock. Slowly as if moving through glue and with its eyes closed, the shadow held out its arms like it carried something.

    The arms fell forwards, spreading above Janatzer's head and chest through the glowing ribbons of power.

_ "His time is almost up, see?"_

_    The ancient Mystic pointed at the hourglass she held while the sand slowly but steadily moved._

 "Mmh…"

    A weak groan left the young man's lips, and his eyelids fluttered slightly.

    The image of Janus smiled, a smile so gentle that it seemed alien.

    Moving no faster than earlier, the reflection floated backwards towards the motionless body of the warlock.

    The Student and the Pawn exchanged relieved glances.  

_ "He's got about ten… well, nine minutes now."_

_ "That can't be right, his book of Life isn't even half filled," lord Amon pointed out, frowning._

As the spirit image melted into the body, Janus' eyes opened and he smiled slightly, not as much as his shadow had done however.

    Janatzer's eyes opened. He blinked in tired confusion, disoriented looking up at the three men standing around him and the garlands of light connecting their chests in a net. He couldn't see properly through the mist and glow.

_"Precisely!" Dreamer concernedly said, "his time is up but he's not halfway through his life yet!"_

_    Lizard shook his head and stared ahead with a frown._

_ "Whatever it is, something will hit him any second, we have to…"_

Janus nodded slightly, and the hands of the three men let go of each other. 

    With a soft popping sound the ribbons broke into a million shards of light.

 _"_That_ can't kill him!" Levana called in disbelief, staring at the empty air just like all the others now were doing._

The warlock's eyes widened in sudden shock and he fell towards the floor while the shards still were disintegrating. 

    _For a moment silence ruled heaven._

_ "This can't be happening!" queen Zeal hissed._

 "What the…!"

    Moving simultaneously the Pawn and his apprentice dove for their mirror and caught him before he crashed.

 _"Maybe he'll be an undead?" Snake said with distaste in her voice. _

 "Janus!"

    The bubble around the smaller group shattered as the call rang in the air and the two dimensional guests carefully lowered the warlock to the ground. 

_ "Well, we _did_ all we could to make him look like a vampire…" Flea casually commented, thoughtfully scratching his cheek with one finger._

_ "I will not have a zombie for a son!" Levana stated, clenching her fists._

_ "_Vampire_," Slash corrected, "zombies fall apart all the time and eat brains, there's a huge difference."_

_ "Yeah, and vampires have better manners. Apart from the sleeping in a coffin and the whole bloodsucking business," Flea nodded, "not to mention the weakness to the s_urk_!"_

_ "Shut. Your. Damn. Mouth," Amon growled._

Molor was beside the group of blue-hairs before anyone else had time to even take a step forwards. Seeing a creature like the black snake charge towards you gives anyone a start and such was the Pawn's reaction, but the Student literally jumped and even reached for the staff lying on the floor until Janus reached up a slightly shaking hand to touch the black head. Then the man wearing a shirt instead of breastplate murmured something about "thought you were something else" but left it at that due to the situation. Molor probably never noticed him in any case.  

 "Barrier should hide…" Janus muttered in a hoarse voice.

 "Don't push me, friend," the snake snarled, the words wavering strangely.

  _"Well, there's only one thing to do in a situation like this, anyway," Dalton said and crossed his arms._

 "How in Lavos' name can you be this weak?" the Pawn spoke, frowning while he held his hand above his mirror's forehead.

    The glares of the approaching people almost burned a hole through his skin.

 "What?" he said, looking up as he felt it. But in the last moment he stopped himself from turning around. 

 "He doesn't mean it like that…" Janus grunted.

    _The souls nodded in agreement._

 "What's happening, uncle?" Janatzer slurred, sitting up as his father reached out to support him.

 "We'd like to know that to," the Pawn said and shook his head, "he had enough power to make it to the other side and back, we didn't remove what we gave him. Still, his life seem to be slipping away."

 "_What_!?"

_ "_Azran_!"_

_    The call of the choir shook the golden landscape._

 "Damn all you warriors… excuse me. Move aside."

    The Pawn just moved as he was told, but Molor did it more due to the surprise of the request as the Student stepped forwards – keeping his eyes on the warlock all the time – and sat down on his knees beside Janus. 

    What happened next caused every single man, woman and snake to blink.

    The blue-haired man – strange enough already for being a Janus with his dialect; though he used the same sort of pants he also wore a white-brown shirt and a bandana, not at all like the other two – raised his palms towards the faltering one and closed his eyes. As he straightened up in that position, it was revealed that the right side of his face was adorned with a sharp vertical scar that split the cheek and eyebrow, though the eye itself seemed to have survived the attack.

    But it wasn't half as peculiar as what he did.

 "Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water," he chanted, "na matala sela."

    Healing stars streamed from his palms, showering over the warlock who grunted of the surprise.

    The magic lasted for a few seconds and the strange one's eyes shot open below a frown as Janus' head shook.

    It hadn't helped, the warlock's face was still turning even paler as the life in his crimson gaze steadily ebbed.

    With his eyes thinning, the Student reached further ahead and turned his palms at Janus' forehead and chest. 

    A sliced eyebrow went upwards and the hands moved away. 

 "You're not dying."

    The statement was just as bewildered as the half words leaving the family and friends' lips.

    Janus' eyes fluttered and his breath came out ragged as he tried to speak somewhat properly, clutching after the last of his strength.

 "Why… does… it feel… like it… then?" he croaked.

    The Student ran his hand through his fringe in confusion.

 "Yes, you're dying, I can see that," he tried to explain what he didn't even understand himself, "but there's nothing killing you. You had enough strength to survive that trip, and there are no wounds and no sickness."

 _"That settles it, something is ajar here!" Magician said, shaking his head._

_ "Yes, but what do we do about it?" Amon concernedly wondered, absentmindedly picking up the nervous Alfador._

 "And Lavos is out of his soul, I guarantee it," Molor hissed, glaring at his friend in despair.

    As one person the two visiting Januses winced, but left it at that.  

    Schala could no longer care about messing up time, too worried about her brother she almost pushed the Pawn aside to reach Janus.

    Hurt and longing flashed in the once enslaved man's eyes as he looked at a sister who was much older than he remembered and who didn't even belong to him. She glanced briefly at him when she fell to Janus' side, trying to comfort another brother. It helped, a little. 

    A second later as she turned her head the blue-haired woman found her own gem eyes staring into a set of glistening ruby ones, just like Janus' when he was younger. But there was more than the scar making a difference. Deep within the red eyes of the Student was a shining power, unlike the one that Schala saw in her brother.

    There was light within the visitor.

    For just half a heartbeat the surprise mesmerized her, then she turned to her real brother and grasped his much bigger hands in hers. The normally strong fingers were cold as ice, and the chill burned her heart with fear.  

_Azran floated into existence and ducked for the pouncing souls._

_ "What in all powers' name is happening?!"_

_ "Calm down and let me explain, I did some research as I heard what was happening…" the angel quickly said, holding up his hands defensively._

_ "Oh good," Levana said in a tense but somewhat less high pitched voice, "then what is it, and what do we do about it?"_

_    The guardian scratched his hair._

_ "Ah… would you believe this is caused by a prayer of Molor's?"_

_    He ducked again, grabbed Dreamer's arm in the escape and used her as a human… monster shield until he could finish the explanation._

 "Janus…" Schala croaked in a broken whisper, her relief over winning him back from Lavos now crushed back into the mud.

    He tried to speak, but his lips were limp with his own body's coldness.

 "_Uncle_!"

    The Student was quite gracelessly shoved aside and blinked in surprise at the young woman in the white dress; a mirror of Schala. Janus cringed weakly at the tears flooding from the younger eyes. Schaliya's slender fingers encircled those of her mother and uncle, her body shaking with sobs. Seeing his wife like that Glenn could no longer stand idle and stumbled around the small crowd and stretcher to her side, draping his arms around Schaliya's shoulders in a fleeting attempt to offer her a drop of comfort. 

    But she didn't even seem to register the touch.

 "Uncle, we need you here…" she managed in a broken voice.

    Janus cringed again, unable to make his numbing body give her any soothing sign. 

 _ "Go Dreamer! Hurry!"_

    All the time this happened, Lashey stood paralyzed with the shocked heroes from the future, unable to speak in her horror. Vaguely she registered a hand on her shoulder, but couldn't tell who dared to touch a broken empress such as her.

   Janus was hardly aware at anything anymore. His sight was filling up with mist by the second and the world was steadily slipping away around him.  As from a far distance he thought that he could hear Molor's voice scream in agony inside of his mind, but it was fading as well… fading to black, in a chillingly familiar way…

 "Stay!"

    The voice rang out in the thickening air and Janus' body shivered for a moment as his eyes –which had been falling to a close – exploded wide open, not in pain but some sort of shock.

 "What…" Schala stuttered, looking up as she saw a movement in the corner of her eye.

    In the confusion the rest of the assembled people could do nothing but do as she did, frowning as their minds tried to grasp the new concept. 

    It wasn't an illusion, nor an image. Not even a touchable entity. Just a transparent silhouette near the roof. The only reason it was visible was since the air was slightly blurred. Due to the circumstances, it was impossible to see what it was. Still it seemed… familiar.

 "I'm here to help," it announced with a calming smile in its female voice, "but before I reveal myself I just wanted to tell you that I'm not who you'll think I am."

    No reply was heard.

    The thing sighed slightly.

 "Alright, just remembered what I said, I'm not…"

    It swept into proper sight.

 "… Flea," the soul quickly assured, holding up the hand that wasn't occupied with a heavy-looking book. 

 "But thou… art…?" Cered stuttered, the first one able to voice the shock.

 "Dreamer, Magician's daughter," the female monster explained as she descended to the floor, "I'm the current Writer of Janus' Book of Life."

 "My what…" the warlock muttered with a slight slur.

    His voice was clearly stronger now, however, and Schala almost tore him up in a relieved, defensive hug.

 "It's the book where your life is written down in the afterlife," Dreamer said while landing between the bewildered Glenn and Student.

    She shrugged lightly, not an easy task considering her burden. 

 "Don't ask me why, it's regulations. Anyway, here's the problem."

    Opening the book she produced a nearly emptied hourglass from the pages.

 "As I've explained to the gang up there," she said and waved at the roof, "your time is almost up but your life isn't, which is quite mystifying."

    Schala lowered her brother again as he looked up at the soul with a deepening frown.

 "What…" he murmured.

    Dreamer tapped her glasses with her pointing finger, smiling faintly.

 "Well, I believe this is the first time something like this actually happens, but our dear old angel have sorted things out. You're not supposed to die right now, but you seem to be out of lifetime, Janus. The only way you'll get through this one is that somebody gives you a part of _his_ time."

    For a moment the world didn't move.

 "No."

    The mutter from the pale lips wasn't strong, but it was determined.

 "Yes."

    Molor shook his head at the warlock and looked up at Dreamer. She glanced down with a smile, while scribbling in the tome which suddenly was obediently floating in the air beside her. The pen in question was nonexistent, but as she moved her hand as if holding a writing tool the letters appeared on the page. The hourglass neatly hung above the manuscript. 

 "Got flattened… by a friend… again," she murmured to herself and chuckled as the hand fell, "sorry Janus, I doubt you have a say in this."

 "Molor!" the warlock hissed, shaking his head.

    The snake's intense glare nearly forced everyone else backwards. 

 "I did not fight Lavos to loose you just because you are out of time, friend," the old king of dragons growled in a deeper voice than normal, "and I rather give up more of my life than live on alone."

    Normally only things that were about to be swallowed whole were under that gaze. And it was questionable whether Janus would have been able to take it even at full health. 

    He closed his eyes in defeat. 

    Dreamer held out her other hand and snapped her fingers. Upon the sound another book came into her grasp from nothingness, this one much bigger and thicker than Janus'. It had a darker cover too. Much darker.

 "We sorta expected that," the soul said with a wink, "here we are…"

    She opened the book on its last fifth, calling upon another hourglass. As with Janus' tome, Molor's script was bigger than the warlock's. 

 "Your current Writer didn't want to make an appearance though," Dreamer said as she kept watching the snake with the hint of an amused smirk, "said he just wrote about you, but that didn't make him want to see you again."

 "Oh really?" Molor suspiciously said.

    Dreamer nodded.

 "Yeah, something about you biting his head off last time you met."

    The transformed dragon nodded his great head slowly.

 "Ah. Him," he said with a dry hiss that sounded a bit too much like a chuckle. 

 "Molor!" Ceredan gasped in disbelief and even Janus looked lightly startled.

    With the smallest grain of guilt visible Molor briefly turned his head at the bigger crowd, but left it at that. He looked at Dreamer again.

 "Never mind. I am _glad_ to give Janus a part of my lifetime," he firmly said. 

 "Your two transformations has caused enough to slip away to make it _almost_ perfectly even between the two of you," the soul of the Mystic gently announced and looked up at the crowd, "I'll spread the extra years over the rest of you. Well…"

    She apologetically shrugged her shoulder at the Pawn and Student. 

 "You two aren't in my area though, sorry."

 "I believe we'll manage, thanks anyway," the youngest said with a slight smile, shaking his head. 

 "Very well then."

    Dreamer took Molor's hourglass in both hands and glared at it, frowning as she focused.

 "Here we go!"

    A gentle flash erupted from the ancient clock, moving through the room as if it had been water. All sounds sunk into hibernation as the light enveloped the entire room, giving everything it touched a soft glow. 

    For several moments, only serene peace existed.

    Then slowly a faint sound was born; a low, tingling sound. Heartbeat by heartbeat it grew into a soft flow – moving sand.

    Through the glow the spectators could see tiny grains melt out of existence in Molor's hourglass, to tinkle down inside the upper half of Janus' artifact. Soon the smaller one of the two counters was half filled, while there was less in the bigger.

 "It evens out," Dreamer assured as the flow ended and the light began to ebb away, "you've had a longer life already, snakey, thus it _looks_ like you have less time left even if you don't."

    The snake was hardly listening, intently watching his kindred soul.

 "Ugh," Janus muttered as he sat up with the help of one arm, while the free hand rubbed his forehead.

 "How are you feeling?" Schala demanded, gripping his shoulders. 

    It wasn't until he gave his temple a quick massage that she noticed that the gray hairs formerly teasing his hair by the ears now were gone. 

 "I'm…"

    He blinked a few times to restore full sight before his sharp, crimson eyes turned at his sister.

    His lips twitched. 

 "… Fine. Ouff!"

 "Hast thou not learnt by now that causing ladies unease will bring harm upon thee as they are relieved?" Glenn mildly commented as Janus was forced to fight for breath in the tight embraces of his sister and niece. 

    The warlock was about to snap back when his two nephews added to the problems by in their joy swallow the pride of a teenage boy and hug their uncle as well. At least, as well as they could since the female parts of their family was in the way.

 "And you know, I thought he looked like a rather depressed version of us," the Student said with a slight chuckle and shrug.

    He hadn't really meant for anyone to hear, but Glenn did and curiously looked at him. The swordsman's eyebrows twitched as he eyed the strange Janus, noticing the same differences as his mother-in-law had seen.

 "Uh…" Glenn managed, deep down thinking that there should be a limit of how many mystifying things were allowed to happen in one day.

 "Judging from your look, I'd say I was right," the Student cheerfully commented with a chuckle. 

    There should really, _really_ be a limit. 

 "Alright then, everybody happy?" Dreamer said with a cheeky laugh, "good, I've got a lot of writing to catch…"

    She fell silent and glanced upwards thoughtfully, as if listening.

    The innocent move caused the revival of the room's tension; fear that the mercy had received a cruel judgment from higher forces. 

    But when Dreamer looked down again it was not with disappointed grief, but with an all too familiar-looking glee.

 "Message from the other side," she said with a small sneer, "Levana Zeal announces that she shook Flea until he spoke up about 'those blue things' as they call it."

 "What blue things?" was the general opinion.

    The general opinion, but with two exceptions.

     Janus and the Pawn exchanged pained, knowing glances and then scowled at the ancient Mystic.

 "What about them?" the younger warily asked. 

 "Well…"

    Dreamer shot upwards, towards the safety of distance. The books and their artifacts followed her. 

 "Apparently, he finally admitted that he lied to you about them," she said, quickly crossing her arms in defense.

    Red eyes met red eyes again in silence.

    Two right hands went up and pinched the bridge of a nose each.

 "That _sick_, _twisted bastard_," a pair of voices growled.

 "If it makes you happier, Slash and Ozzie are shouting the same at him," Magician's daughter chuckled, "as for now, tata!"

    She waved a little with her hand and then popped out of existence, with much less grace than she had appeared. Her item-companions followed suite.

 "Too bad he's already dead in my time stream," the Pawn snarled as he stood, "I'd tear him apart…"

 "What blue things?" Marle asked from the other half of the room, raising her eyebrows.

 "You _don't_ want to know," two voices said simultaneously.

 "Oh, I can fry him for you," the Student said with a slanted smile and picked up his staff, looking away as much as possible from the assembled people even if he already had seen most of them.

    Lucca was about to say something about the magician being very allergic to being cleaved, but remembering how the ol' psychopath had fought Lavos she let it slide.

 "Speaking of which," the Student told the wall, "I'm glad that I was able to help you, but like my teacher I don't belong here and if I don't get back soon the king and queen will have my head."

    Complete silence fell over the room.

    Again.

    It was getting a little repetitive. 

    After a couple of seconds the Student rubbed the back of his neck, slightly uneasy.

 "What?" he said, but there was no tension in his voice.

    Instead of worried, he sounded rather amused.

 "The who will what?" Glenn finally spoke in a bit of a high pitched voice.

 "King Guardia and Leene just tend to get nervous when I'm wandering around considering said magician has planned to drink my blood for dinner," the Student cheerfully said with a shrug.

    The power of silence ruled for another moment.

 "We better put you back where you belong before you cause our reality to implode or something, mister," Lucca weakly said, earning a short laugh from the danger in question.

 "Yes, I still have to find Schala," the Pawn said and straightened up with a slight sigh.

 "You'll manage."

    Janus stood, allowing all the helping hands to assist him even if he truly felt he didn't need him. By then he had learnt that there were things one could not fight, family love being one.

 "But when you've done that," he said, "you will also have found your version of Molor, if our lives will keep a _somewhat_ similar form…"

 "I think I smell distrust," the Student said, without any anger. 

 "Something like that," Janus approved with a grunt, "in any case, as soon as you find Molor, ask him to search out Lavos inside of your minds and if possible drive him out before he gets a strong grip like the parasite did with me."

 "I can't speak for other versions but I believe I could have found him," the snake admitted and shook his head, "but there was never a reason for me to venture that deeply inside Janus' mind."

 "Giant, talking snakes," the Pawn murmured and crossed his arms, "quite fascinating."

    Molor gave the former slave a somewhat smirking glance.

 "There is more than that, but I will leave that for you to discover yourself," the transformed dragon did speak. 

 "Lovely."

    While the Pawn shook his head in vague disbelief, Janus stepped over to the Student's side of the stretcher which divided the room. There was more space there, and thus the warlock chose that area to open the dimensional Gate. Following the fizzling sound of the magic, the two mirrors turned and walked towards the darkness. 

    Without looking around the Student fulfilled the strange appearance by waving a little over his shoulder before he disappeared from sight.

    Janus looked around as the youngest one's teacher also left.

 "I'll be back in a moment," the warlock said.

 "Don't you need to rest?" Schala quite furiously protested. 

    Her brother smiled a little.

 "In a minute."

 "Why you…"

    She stretched out her hand after him, but he dove through the Gate.

 "Oh! I'm going to…"

    And Janus came back, the portal closing behind him. 

    Slowly Schala crossed her arms.

 "That was silly, brother," she stated.

 "Such was not my intention," he calmly replied.

 "Will you sit down and let all of us recover already?" the princess scolded.

    A pale hand absentmindedly stroke Molor's black head, the snake's cold eyes shining with final relief.

 "I would appreciate that myself," the warlock said, placing his other hand firmly on Janatzer's shoulder.

    The youngster placed his own hand on his uncle's, gratefully smiling with the same relief as Molor.

    Janus' gaze ran over the assembled people and their smiles, coming to a halt by a pale face that carried more hesitance that happiness. Lashey looked away, bitter over that she had not been able to offer support a third crucial time.  

    Inwardly, the warlock sighed deeply, but Molor was the only one who could feel it.

    And the traitor of a snake-dragon grinned to himself, shielding the almost disinclined feelings to his kindred spirit in respect. It was very tempting, however.

 "Let's just recover for a while," Janus said and briefly rolled his eyes in second defeat, "then there is one more thing we'll have to take care of."

    Lashey frowned in unsure hope as she found that the warlock was looking back at her without the slightest hesitation, not sure what he was thinking.  


	9. Endgame

Chapter 9, Finale

 "You're _really_ going to _do_ that?"

 "If there's one thing I've understood from living in this era, it's that the nobles are a little too fond of drama."

 "And you hate that."

 "Yes, I do. But I'll make an exception for this emperor. I'm not _completely_ drained of powers."

 "Can we have first row seats? Please?"

 "I believe that they are taken already."

 "Eh?"

 "Never mind. I'll tell you all about it when we get back."

 "That's not fair! Hey, wait you meanie!"

The sun shone brightly over the capital of empire Garadia, but the enthusiasm that had filled the air last week was now replaced with an uncertain hesitance and fear. The war had been stopped by a great earthquake and returning soldiers spoke of darkness and a gigantic demon. Obviously Heaven had sent the fury of Hell to stop the human madness, and now the only thing to do was pray for forgiving and repent. The priests were having a field day.

    The courtyard of the palace was normally a place for training, but this evening it was empty apart from a few soldiers in training and servants who all sneaked along the walls on the way to and fro their chores. 

    Everyone was rather edgy, and the handful of young men nearly went through the walls when there was a sudden flash of light in the middle of the well-trampled square. That one of the creatures stepping out of the silent flare was a giant black snake, which proved that the blue-haired man was the sorcerer Janus, and the fact that the third was the missing empress did not make things any better for the poor spectators. 

    Janus pinched the bridge of his nose.

 "I can't believe I'm doing this…" he muttered.

 "I demand no such thing," Lashey re-stated, shaking her head. 

 "No, but if we're turning traditions inside out it has to be with force," Molor commented, hissing with amusement.

 "Oh, I'm fine with that," Janus grunted, "it's the rest that makes me apprehensive."

 'He's not completely sure about that,' Molor sent over to Lashey without the warlock's notice, with a rather mean mental chuckle, 'silence, he won't admit it but there's nothing he want more right now than to have revenge on your husband.'

    Aloud the snake spoke:

 "Regardless, are you sure you have the power?"

 "He left all my low-level powers," Janus nodded and fixed his eyes on the huge, closed gates of the palace, "I believe that they are enough to get the job done."

    He raised his hands.

 _"That's tyranny, you know,"_ Schala had said, but without being able to sound even a little bit condemning.

 _"And what is it that we have right now, then?"_

_ "I guess you have a point."_

_ "Even so, it might _look_ like tyranny, but it'll truly be a lot more fair."_

_ "But how will Lashey maintain control? There will be those that are going to fight for the traditions, if I know history correctly,"_ Lucca had intervened. 

    Janus sighed inwardly, rolling his eyes.

 'Hell is a place on earth,' he gruffly thought, 'and it's held up by the phrase "I owe you one".'

    Seconds later the two halves of the gates exploded inwards. 

    The report of the ruckus was brought to the throne room and the already frustrated emperor while he was listening to a report about the outrage among the empire's citizens and soldiers about the horrors on the battlefield. The advisor of the divine was just about to present a calculation of how many public executions it would take to calm the gods and people – a sum that probably would have been doubled (starting with a blue-haired woman) by the aggravated emperor had he gotten the chance – when several hysterical guards stumbled in, screaming as if all devils in Hell were after them.

    Before they had time to calm down long enough to explain what was happening, the reason for their terror entered and caused the fleeing men to dive for cover among the shrieking servants and courts men – nobles that one minute ago had shared a rather glum and irritated feeling. What their eyes now served their hearts was a lot more colorful, but not any more pleasant.  

    Emperor Sere himself shot from his throne in shock and rage, his silk robes streaming around him with a whispering sound.

    The dress of his wife flowed as well, but unlike her husband's her clothes did not settle after a moment. Like her freely falling hair, the blue robes slowly moved in a wind that didn't exist. Her left hand, halfway covered by the long sleeve, rested on the giant head of the devil snake beside her as if she was holding the fury of the beast back. 

    She made no attempts to restrain the demon on her right side, however.

    A cloak colored as blood moved over the warlock's back like a crimson river, the softly blue color of his long hair only strengthening the force of red. The unholy glow in his eyes was only comparable to the blaze in the snake's gaze, reflecting the dirty fire that was consuming the banner in the dark sorcerer's hand.

    In a move not born from pain of burn but pure disgust, the warlock flung the crumbling flag to the floor. The green cloth and the golden, zigzagged circle crest of Garadia turned to ashes while the black smoke rose towards the roof. 

    The three invaders crossed through the smoke untouched by the last dying flames and reached the middle of the floor.

 "Good evening, husband," Lashey spoke in a dangerously soft voice.

    Perhaps Sere could be offered a small bit of understanding. After all, during the last day he had been dragged through the humiliating act of a forced peace treaty he had not planned, earned the outrage of most of his country due to the "celestial interference" against the war, and had received word that his wife mysteriously disappeared around lunchtime.

    But above that, he was a tyrant and woman beater. And furthermore, during the same time span Janus had nearly had his body stolen, his soul thrown into unspeakable torment, died and finally he _had_ surrendered to more additions to an idea than _he_ had planned. As for the last ordeal, he was firm in the belief that certain individuals had plotted against him, but had given up considering who the schemers were. 

    In conclusion, Janus was hiding it well but he hadn't felt like he now did since the day he dragged a comatose Flea to the feet of a trembling Ozzie. In both hatred and deeply rooted elation of seeing the hated ones cover in fear.  

 "Lashey… what…" Sere stammered in outrage, the shock not allowing him to think straight.

    The empress – for the first time ever – silenced him by merely raising her right hand, the left not leaving the snake's head.

 "Thou hast no right to be the ruler of our fair country," she said, her voice turning harder for each word, "thy cruel treatment of the people, thy scheming with the nobles to create a war against Mandria, and thy filthy way of sacrificing innocent lives for thy own ill will all destroys the honor of an emperor."

    As the warlock Janus slowly crossed his arms during Lashey's speech the magical wind faltered, but the glow in the man's and snake's eyes remained. This toned down the fearful effect a little bit, but it had a purpose in the scare as well. For as the direct threat settled a little, agitated whispers that had been held back in horror earlier erupted from the crowd. It also had another reason; challenge. 

    Terror clouds the mind, and not everyone remains wise enough to maintain instincts of self preservation. 

 "Treachery!" the divine advisor spluttered, just getting up from the floor.

    Lashey hadn't expected less of the old priest. He was one of the first she had thought of when Lucca had spoken of conservatives who loved the power in the traditions. 

    The empress smiled coldly.

 "The throne belongs to none but the imperial family," she pointed out, "only those with royal blood art the heirs of the crown. And in this era, there be only two with the sacred blood in their veins; me and my son Solan. Lord Sere is in truth no less than a filthy usurper." 

 "B-by marriage…" the advisor stammered.

 "Truly. 'Twas a poor choice I made."

    Janus' lips hardly moved and the whisper was so low that even Lashey had troubles hearing it, but in any case nobody really paid him any attention right then. 

 "I hath come to reclaim the throne that is rightfully mine," the empress continued with a deadly smile, "for the people of Garadia deserve no tyrant."

 "Heaven forb…" the divine advisor began.

    He was cut off by his own shriek as he was flung upwards by the move of Janus' hand, stopping only as the warlock turned still again with his arm stretched straight upwards and the fingers bent. By then the elderly man was about seven feet above the floor, his eyes almost bulging out of his head and his every limb paralyzed in terror.

 "If heaven forbids a woman to rule," Janus snarled, though his voice was low it escaped the ears of none, "then where is the divine wrath?"

    His hand shot downwards but he only let the man really fall the last foot, leaving the advisor in a trembling heap on the floor by the throne. 

 "I'll tell you where it is," he growled while the cloak made one single, warning wave behind him, "it will stay up in heaven. The only wrath you will see is mine!" 

    He never raised his voice very much, but he could have been roaring for less effect than there was. 

 _"Ya know Levvy," Flea casually said after regaining control over the gleeful giggles, "no matter what he says your son is a drama whore."_

_    This witty comment earned him a first class flight to a refreshing bath. Again._

 "You had my nephew killed because I wouldn't crawl in the dust for you," Janus growled, his glare keeping the terrified emperor in a petrified state.

    The warlock gave a faint, cold smile.

 "But Janatzer is alive, Sere."

    As gasps and shocked croaks were heard from all over the room, the icy smile died and turned into a scowl that could fry the bones of anyone it was directed at. 

 "I warned you about making me your enemy."

    And Janus' growling voice formed a spell. 

 _"Now he's _really_ having fun," Ozzie smirked, "there's no way around it."_

_ "Ah, so that's why he didn't bring the others," Magician nodded, "Glenn would have been cringing his face off."_

_ "I dunno, he should be used to it by now," Dalton said with a snicker, "I'm sure he's tasted pretty little Schaliya's temperament a few times."_

_ "Really now!" Levana said, trying to sound upset. _

_ "Oh come on. Why else would Janus have taught her that spell?"_

As Janus' hand turned towards Sere a thin lightning bolt flashed from the palm and hit the paralyzed man straight in the chest. The effect was immediate.

    Unnatural colors flared over the emperor's body as he doubled over with a screech of pain. Within seconds the screech grew sharper, while the body rapidly shrunk. The fine robes shifted color with the skin, turning gray-brown and hairy while the arms thinned and legs shrunk.

    It was over within seconds.

    The divine advisor scrambled out of the way as Janus crossed the last part of the floor and stepped up the short stair to the throne. With a look of nothing but disdain the warlock reached down and swiftly lifted a small, twisting body from the great chair. Holding the pair of leathery wings he turned around for all to see what had happened, glaring at the pathetically squeaking creature. The court was dead silent. 

 "I should feed you to Molor," the warlock hissed at his creation.

 _"I'm so proud," Flea snickered while shaking off the water, "I taught him that!"_

_ "The extremely hard way," Slash commented, stepping away from Snake's path just in case._

_ "It can't get better than that!"_

_ "What are we doing wrong?" Lizard sighed, motioning at the cross body._

_ "Nothing at all," his wife sweetly said._

But instead of fulfilling his threat, Janus reached backwards and hurled the bat towards the rest of the room. The animal screeched desperately before its wings managed to catch the flight in mid fall, and it sailed through the gate towards the distant, growing evening. 

    This version of the transformation spell worked a little differently than the one Glenn had been under. While the swordsman only had reminded of a frog but still had been humanoid, Sere had been completely transformed – his mind along with his body. The fact that he had managed to fly proved that he truly had become a bat to the fullest.

    The spell would of course wear off by Janus death, but bats don't live that long. So there was no reason to worry about a return of that man, whatever good that would ever do the loosing one. 

    Lashey had a hard time keeping her smile on a modest level while she dearly wanted to grin as she moved over the floor, Molor slithering behind her as if on guard.

    Janus concealed his sigh and swallowed the last of his pride, reaching out a hand as the empress reached the first step of the stair. She grasped his fingers with hardly contained surprise since this had not been part of the plan.

 "The emperor is dead," the warlock stated, thinking that all his morals were going the same way, "long live the empress."

    The woman wasn't needing the support as she walked up the stair and sat down on the throne, it was as much a show as the rest of it. Just like Janus and Molor positioning themselves on either side of the royal chair as the empress leaned back. 

 "Our fair empire is now facing a new era, one that is the child of peace," Lashey spoke, her gaze running over the shivering people of the great room, "before we let this truth be known across the land, we shall state a few things."

    Her smile could kill. 

 "Call a scholar here," she sweetly told the shocked divine advisor, "there shall be changes in the law and there is a need for a scriber."

    With a fearful stare at the warlock's warning scowl, the elderly man got up and stumbled towards the gate to fulfill the order.

 "I thank thee," Lashey murmured from the corner of her lips.

 "He deserved it," Janus simply replied, emotionless.

    The empress smiled slightly, untouched by any non-feeling wall the man tried to show.

 'Funny,' Molor commented.

 'Silly,' Janus grunted.

 'You laugh.'

 'No.'

    The snake silently chuckled. Janus glared in his direction without turning his head.

 'Fun when you explain "bit his head off" to us all,' the warlock said, evilly.

    Molor grimaced mentally.

 'Never said I was a good king,' he murmured, 'he was enemy.'

 'Ah.'

    Lashey shifted a little.

 "I hath been thinking about the other two versions of thee," she casually said, "who were they?"

 "The one that looked mostly like me I have been dreaming about," Janus explained with a slight shrug, unwilling to delve too far into the subject, "as for the other one I am wondering myself."

    He was silent for a moment before he gave up. Women would ask until they knew, he had learnt as much. 

 "I will send my spirit back to the point where I left him when I go to sleep," he admitted, "in order to see who he was."

    The empress suppressed a chuckle.

 "I am certain it will be quite fascinating," she commented.

 "Perhaps."

    Janus glowered at the gate, dearly hoping the damn scholar would show up some time during the current century.

 "Though I have a strange feeling that he will give me a headache."

    This time Lashey could no longer hold back her built up enjoyment and she had to cover her lips with her hand as she laughed as silently as she could.

 "Is that proper for an empress?" Molor mildly commented.

 "Oh, I believeth that it will be soon," she replied, her eyes glistening like the one of a hunting cobra as she eyed the terrified nobles like mice. 

    Janus tried to assure himself that he found nothing funny about the entire situation, in the end to little avail. 

End.

Author's note:

Well finally! Now I'll get back to A Look on Another one (the spinoff from this one in case you didn't know) again!

I guess there are a couple of more loose ends left, like the "blue things" and Molor's past, but I'll just leave that for your imagination. Mwhahaha… unless I get a _sproing_ of inspiration, of course… 


	10. Parody bonus

Note that I hate Mary Sue's with a passion. This is not a Mary Sue. It's a parody. 

There was a misunderstanding about what Molor said about his son in chapter five, so I decided to write this silly lil' thing instead of an author's note explaining it all. 

One parody explanation for your enjoyment

_Ticeti-click-tictic-tac-tacticticclicketitic-tictic-tic…_

    Fingers danced over a keyboard. Then the mouse arrow rolled over to the small picture of a floppy disk. 

 "_One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster_…" a voice from the speakers smirked, accompanied with an entire orchestra.

_   Click._

"…_the bars are temples but the pearls ain't free_…"

Now for the red square with the lil' X in.

   _Click._

 "…_you'll find a god in every golden cloister_…"__

And the blue e. Here we go.

    _Click-click!_

    A pretty much entirely white screen – apart from the blinking advertisement square, the blue link text and the orange and brown Review buttons, and add the black text while we're at it – appeared a few clicks later.

 "…_and if you're lucky then the god's a she_…"

    A pair of eyebrows rose as the eyes below moved over the new texts in the light-purple boxes.

 "… _I can feel an angel sliding up to me_…"

 "Janus!" a female voice shouted.

 "Yes?" three voices shouted back, each one on a third-grade rating of irritation.

 "_One town is very like another_…"

 "The original!"   

 "Yes?!"

    Well, down to one at least. The most irritated one. Lovely. And meanwhile the song moved on.

 "Get Molor down here!"

    There was a pause.

 "_Whaddya mean? You've seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town_…"

 "What?" the warlock finally called.

 "Just give me a few seconds…" the woman yelled and stood up from the chair, turned around and then leaped onto the piece of furniture to stand instead of sit on it.

    Well, that felt somewhat more secure. Psychologically.

 "Are you done yet?" a smirking voice said from behind her, just as she was about to announce that she was ready.

    The woman jumped with a small shriek, whipping around with a black pencil in a tight fist. By miracle she managed to regain balance.

 "What, no attempts to strike me from behind today?" she dryly asked. 

 "_One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble_…"

 "Not when you're ready for it," he said with a faint snicker, "I'm still working on the next attempt."

 "Oh, lovely. Nothing like another death-threat to make you feel good in the mornings. Anyway…"

    She glanced around a little.

 "Where is he?"

 "… _I can feel the devil walking next to me_…"

 "He's been under the table all the time," Janus informed.

    The nearest and most convenient lamp gained sudden weight, creaking dangerously.

 "You _know_ I hate it when you do that!" she screeched.

 "Why else would I do it?" he mildly commented and sat down on the chair while the giant snake slithered out of hiding, "besides, I thought you would have noticed since not even half of him fits there."

    The woman's mouth opened and closed a few times, but lacked a good retort. 

    Oh, whatever.

 "Fine, fine," she grunted and pointed at the screen, "I just wanted you to check that."

     For the first time the warlock threw a glance at the computer. A second later the chair crashed into the wall and the gloved fingers were forming a panicked symbol against evil forces. Molor took a look and then dived back under the table – well, his head and most of the… eh… neck did – again. 

 "You _know_ I hate that!" Janus coughed. 

 "Yes, why else would I do it?" the woman smirked, winking with one eye.

 "… _this will show the traitor no-one rats with profit_…" another voice sung, unaware of the silly scene it was performing for, "_oh, we're gonna smash that bastard!_"

 "You can't force me to read those lemons again, they dropped the NC-17 rating!" the warlock growled, a wild sparkle of pure horror in his eyes, "besides, I didn't try to feed you to Molor while you slept… again."

 "Yet?" she dryly commented.

    He ignored it and tried to get a grip of himself.

 "Well then, why did you call for us, anyway?" he said instead of retorting. 

    Once more the woman gestured at the computer, keeping the cable going between the roof and lamp in her other hand. 

 "Need to clear something out," she said, "if you'd dare to read the _reviews_, mind you, you'd see that people seem to misunderstand stuff. Molor, get out here."

    The last was spoken with a shudder.

    Hissing in a questioning tone the snake resurfaced.

 "You weren't clear enough in chapter five, we'll have to fix that," the woman informed.

    The forked tongue danced angrily and Molor grimaced as he twisted his throat around.

 "I could not think of anything better!" he protested.

 "Well, seems it didn't help."

 "I'm not doing that scene again, it was just silly."

    The woman rolled her eyes and nodded.

 "I know you didn't like it but Dalton and the others can't explain that in the explanations chapter, we'll have to redo that chapter or think of something else."

 "You mean _you_ think?" Janus sarcastically commented, "what's wrong with it anyhow?"

    The lampdweller shook her head.

 "People misunderstood," she said, "they think Molor said he was _your_ father."

 "What?!" the two dark Ones shouted and glared at the screen. 

    Seconds later a hand and tip of a tail hit a forehead each.

 "Am I _that_ confusing?" the snake sighed.

 "_And what I'm feeling now has no easy explanation, reason plays no part_…" the next singer announced as the CD kept playing.

 "Guess we overdid the mystery talk," the woman nodded, "so, how will we get that cleared out?"

 "You could just write an author's note, you know," Janus snapped, "it's your fault for cutting down on the explanations."

 "He was the one who didn't want to talk about it!"

 "And I still don't!" Molor snapped.

 "Okay, I understand," the woman said.

 "Now that was a first," Janus coldly muttered.

 "Can it, warlock."

 "Bloody psychopath…"

 "…_heaven help my heart_…"

 "Watch it, you don't see me pairing you and Frog, now do you?" she evilly commented. 

    Shuddering in disgust the warlock turned his back at the author.

    Molor glared at the screen again. 

 "Alright, I get the point," he said and shook his head, "we can't have the readers misunderstand that, so why don't you just write an author's note like Janus said?"

 "Those author's notes are getting on my nerves, I wish I could make you guys explain things better in the story so I didn't have to write them."

 "Not our fault," Janus growled.

 "Well you keep altering the basic outlines."

    Molor slammed his tail into the floor to mark that he wanted to get things over with.

 "Well, then what?" he demanded, "are we doing the scene again?"

 "That might be good, but I don't know how you could explain things any further without saying it straight out," the woman sighed, scratching her thick brown hair.

 "Whatever, you better think of something. I'm not going to speak out that _he's_ my son just like that, anyway."

 "Huh…"

    The woman thoughtfully rubbed her cheek.

 "Well, I can't bring him back in and have him say it since you banished him back to your home dimension in Another Life," she said, "and if I don't want to write an author's note… I don't know…"

    By now the track on the CD had changed again. 

 "_Your personal life's the lead on the news! How do we ignore that?_"

 "Okay, okay," she finally said, "I'll think of something. Just slither away so I can concentrate. I'll try to think of something better than rewriting the chapter, promise."

    Glares were exchanged. Finally Janus nodded.

 "Against better knowledge we'll leave you alone with that devil's toy," he said and waved at the computer with a disgusted look flashing over his face, "come on, Molor. We better let the little maiden in distress save herself."

    Snickering slightly the two left.

    The woman waited until she was sure they had left and weren't planning any traps again. Then she let go of the lamp and clumsily landed on the floor, muttering to herself as she dragged the chair back to the computer to sit. Leaning her cheek in a hand she let her eyes run over the letters again. 

 "Hm, yeah… Pawn followed too easily maybe, I though so too…" she muttered to herself, "well, as for now… hmm… Molor, Molor, son… hmm…"

    Her short nails drummed against the table as she grumbled. And the track had once again changed. 

 "… _But it took time to understand the man… now at least, I know I know him well_…"

    Glaring at the media player she hit stop and reached out to change the CDs. "Chess in Concert CD2" was exchanged for "Chess in Concert CD1". She suspiciously threw a glance under the table before she went back to thinking.

 "Molor, father, son… no telling… father, son… no author's note… Molor, Charash… hmm… no author's note?"

    A huge grin overtook her features and she quickly closed down the internet window, opening up a well-used file on the desktop. Once again the word document simply labeled "Prince" received a double-click and opened.

    Once again the sound of a keyboard being used to the limit of its powers was heard.

        "Note that I hate Mary Sue's with a passion. This is not a Mary Sue. It's a parody."

Weiila note:

Ah yes, that music playing was as I mentioned Chess in Concert, a record of the musical being performed with only the songs and no acting. I'm a musical nut.

Anyway, this chapter was only made to clear things out. I'll probably move it to the end of the story when it's finished, but I'll leave it here for now. Regard this as a small taste of "Failed takes", a planned parody of the Janus Saga.


End file.
